Through the Gospel Reading for this Sunday, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, B (Mark 7:31-37), we come to understand our need to let Jesus remove whatever clogs our spiritual
arteries with his powerful command of “Ephphatha!” so that our hearts are open to his grace - to live a life of impartiality and mercifulness - serving the Lord as channels of his healing and more. Healing means to restore the perfect condition of life, as we were created, free from all spiritual clogging, obstacles, and impediment, resulting from sins.
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Once again, Gospel Reading reflects on Jesus’ Christological nature in healing.
Back on 13th Sunday, the Gospel Reading (Mark
5:21-43) reflected on how Jesus healed a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for
twelve years and raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead.
What does healing mean? Why did Jesus heal?
Jesus healed not just out of compassion for the
afflicted but also out of his desire to restore the perfect human condition
with His blessing at the time of Creation (Genesis 1:28, 31). When God created
us in His image (Genesis 1:27), we were perfect, unblemished. We were like
Mary, full of grace (Luke 1:28), without any spot to defile. However, ever
since the fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-24), we have been plagued with
imperfection, suffering and death (Romans 5:13-14; 6:23).
But do you think God would leave us in such an
imperfect state with suffering and death?
Of course not! Because God is love (1 John 4:8, 16),
therefore, God is full of compassion for us (i.e. Ephesians 2:4).
So, He wants us to be in the original perfect sate.
Because of this, He has sent His only begotten Son out of His love for us (John
3:16).
This is what is behind
all healing miracles performed by Jesus.
Now, understanding
healing, in a biblical sense, as restoration of the original perfect condition
of our being, at the time of Creation, we can see how God may grant restoration
to those who are faithful and return to Him upon repentance in the First
Reading (Isaiah 35:4-7a) especially in the context of Isaiah 34:1-35:10. In
this context, we can see God’s vindication of the faithful and the repentant in
restoration (Isaiah 34:16-35:10). And today’s Gospel Reading on Jesus healing a
man who was deaf and had speech impairment (Mark 7:31-37) is to be read in this
context.
After dealing with the
Pharisees and some scribes from Jerusalem in Galilee, debating on the human
tradition and what the Torah mandates, to remind the fact that a source of
defilement is found in our own hearts, as read and reflected last Sunday, 22nd
Sunday (Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23), Jesus went northwest to the district of Tyre,
where there were more Gentiles than Jews, as to get away from Jews, and healed
a daughter of Syrophoenician woman, because of
this Gentile woman’s impressive faith and humility (Mark 7:24-30). According
to Mark, this episode is the first case of Jesus healing a person specifically
identified as Gentile, whose strong faith and humility overcame the division
between the Jews and the Gentiles. The Gospel Reading for today, 23rd
Sunday (Mark 7:31-37) follows this healing episode in the district of Tyre.
Jesus left the district
of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of
the Decapolis (Mark 7:31). It means that Jesus was coming back to Galilee from
the Tyre area through another area where there were more Gentiles than Jews, as
Sidon and the district of Decapolis had heavy Gentile populations.
In this heavily Gentile
region, Decapolis, a man with deafness and speech impairment was brought to
Jesus by some local people, begging him to heal this man (Mark 7:32). Without
asking or checking of this man brought to him for healing was Jew or Gentile, Jesus
proceeded to work on him, taking him aside in order to give a focused attention
in healing (Mark 7:33a).
Then, Jesus put his
finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue, and looked up to
heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!”
(“Be opened!”) (Mark 7:33b-34).
The finger of Jesus inserted into the man’s deaf ears suggests removing obstacles of hearing by force. But, his finger is not just a finger but the finger with immediate healing power.
Perhaps, what grabs our
attention in this method of healing performed by Jesus is spitting on his
finger and touched the tone of the man.
To those who are
familiar with medicine and pathophysiology, saliva’s healing property, mainly
due to this peptide complex, known as histatins (histatin-1, histatin-3,
histatin-5). This peptide complex, histatins, is known for antimicrobial and
cell-adhesive properties, to the extent of promoting angiogenesis in newly
healed tissues (Torres et al., 2018)*.
However, in the case
with a man with deafness and speech impairment in Mark 7:31-37, the above
scientifically healing factors of saliva do not seem relevant.
In fact, Jesus used his
saliva for healing on another occasion – healing a man born blind (John 9:6).
So, we know that the
saliva of Jesus can heal deafness and speech impairment – perhaps, more for the
speech problem (Mark 7:33b) and blindness (John 9:6). In this regard, Jesus’
saliva’s healing effect is rather more sacramental, meaning that it is a
tangible object to convey and bring forth the effects of the Holy Spirit. Not
to mention, the Holy Spirit has the power to heal (Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians
12:9), because the Holy Spirit gives life (John 6:63), as the Holy Spirit in the
breath of God, is known as nishemat
chayim/נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים (breath of life), has made us nephesh chayah/ נֶ֣פֶשׁ חַיָּ֔ה (living
being)(Genesis 2:7). And the Holy Spirit has the potency to restore our
imperfect life, plagued with suffering and death, as well as, impairment and
impediment, back to the original perfect condition of nephesh chayah/ נֶ֣פֶשׁ חַיָּ֔ה.
And, the perfect life in
God’s breath (nishemat chayim/נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים
) given to us came out of God’s mouth (Genesis 2:7). So, did the saliva of
Jesus came out of his mouth (Mark 7:33b; John 9:6) to restore impaired life.
Though our suffering
and death are due to sin (Romans 5:13-14; 6:23), the Holy Spirit helps us to be
freed from such effects of sin (Romans 8:1-11), toward the original perfection
of life. And this life-giving and healing Holy Spirit can comes out of Jesus
(John 20:22), as his saliva does (Mark 7:33b; John 9:6).
And Jesus casted his
eyes to heaven (Mark 7:34), as it is where the power of healing comes from – as
it is where the Holy Spirit is sent from (Acts 2:2-4)..
Upon applying his finger
and saliva, Jesus said to the man, “Ephphatha!”
– Be opened!
This command of Jesus
cleared whatever the impediments of the man’s hearing and speaking immediately
(Mark 7:35).
So, this is a
three-step healing process: Jesus’ finger, saliva, and commanding voice of “Ephphatha!” to remove all the obstacles
in restoring the man’s hearing and speech.
Then, Jesus told those
who witnessed the hearing not to tell anyone about it (Mark 7:36a). However,
the more he ordered not to tell, the more people told about it with
astonishment (Mark 7:36b-37).
Why did Jesus command
people not to speak about the healing act that he performed?
It was because he did
not the whole world to know who he is and what he can do as Christ at that
point of history. So, the fact that Jesus commanding not to tell about his
great miracle works to people is known as “Messianic secret”.
Jesus preferred the
world to come to know him and his Christological nature rather gradually and
orderly. Letting the world know everything about him at once can lead to social
chaos, making it difficult for Jesus to continue on with his public ministry.
Now, this healing
episode (Mark 7:31-37) is not just about physical healing of deafness and
speech impairment. Rather, along with his healing episode of a man born blind
(John 9:1-12), as Jesus’ saliva is involved in both of these events, we should
see this episode as restoring our ears of faith and mouth of faith and eyes of
faith to the perfect condition – so that we can listen to the Word of God, in
Jesus’ kerygma out of his mouth – so that we can speak plainly of Jesus as the
Christ and all the Good News of him in our evangelization works – so that we
can see the truth, which who Jesus is (John 14:6).
So, we ask ourselves:
How can we let Jesus
remove obstacles and impediments to restore our perfect hearing, speaking, and
seeing abilities of faith?
One way to consider for
this is to tap into the Sacrament of Reconciliation to remove such obstacles
and impediment resulting from our sins through absolution.
Why do we need to have
perfect hearing, speaking, and vision of faith?
It is to conduct our
life without becoming judgemental, as James calls in the Second Reading (James
2:1-5). Being judgemental prevents us from being impartial.
To understand the
Second Reading (James 2:1-5) better, it is recommended to read James 2:1-13.
Then, we can see how being judgemental impairs our abilities not only to be
just but also to be merciful by falling to favoritism.
We are not to judge
against the poor but to be merciful toward them. So, we act on love to support
the poor through our works of mercy. As God helps us, the poor sinners, with
his grace, we also help each other, especially our brothers and sisters in
special needs due to poverty and affliction, in order to be agents of God’s
healing and restoration and vindication power. For this, we first let Jesus
remove obstacles and impediments of our hearing, speaking, and seeing.
This way, we all can
praise the Lord with joy in unison, for all His wonderful deeds on us,
including healing, as reflected in the Responsorial Psalm (146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10)!
Let us remember:
“What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and
what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love
him”, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit
scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God (1 Corinthians 2:9; cf. Isaiah 64:3).
As we let Jesus remove obstacles and impediment through his healing power, not only we are restored to the original perfect condition of life but to enjoy the greater glory of God more fully!
Let Jesus' powerful command of “Ephphatha!” open our hearts to his grace!
* Torres P, Castro M, Reyes M, Torres VA. Histatins, wound healing, and cell migration. Oral Dis. 2018;24:1150–1160. https://doi.org/10.1111/odi.12816
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