HOMILY FOR THE 23RD SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B
Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi
The Gospel (Mark 7:31-37) tells us the story of how Jesus cured a deaf man. After his encounter with the Syrophoenician woman in the region of Tyre, Jesus returned to the region of the Decapolis through Sidon. While he was there, people brought to him a man who was deaf and dumb and pleaded with him to cure him. He took him aside and having performed his ritual uttered the word “Ephphatha.” Immediately, the man became whole again and the people continued to proclaim the incident even when Jesus had ordered them not to talk about it. They kept on saying: He has done all things well; this is because he brings restoration to the human body/senses. This same restoration was prophesied in the oracle of Isaiah in the First Reading (Isaiah 35:4-7a) concerning the signs that would follow the people’s return back to Zion. This promise of restoration is not only limited to their going back to their land, or the revival of their land, but also the restoration of their physical bodies. An this is exactly what Jesus did when he uttered that powerful word: EPHPHATHA.
Ephphatha is according to the evangelist, the actual word addressed by Jesus to the deaf man (Mark 7:34). It is an Aramaic word, translated in Greek as meaning ‘Be opened.’ It is one of the characteristics of Mark that he uses the very Aramaic words which fell from our Lord’s lips. (cf. Mark 3:17; 5:41;7:11;14:36;15:34). This word has become a very popular word that is used by many Christians to show the power of God over stagnant realities that need to blossom. To utter the word is to get ourselves reminded that God is above every ailment and that He is able to open all closed doors affecting the joy and livelihood of the children of God. However, ephphatha can be very much personalized if we realize that the heart is the seat of faith. And if there is a place within us that needs to be opened, it is the heart. This is why people talk about having a large heart; one that is open. This is the point of St. James in the Second Reading as he admonishes all Christians to show no partiality or distinction based on the riches of the world. A heart that is closed up within itself is prone to this vice, but a large heart shows no partiality. Such a heart needs to hear Jesus as he speaks to him that most piercing word -EPHPHATHA.
Ephphatha implies and has the goal of inclusiveness. It is so amazing to notice the precedents to the use of this word by Jesus. The first concerns the route taken by Jesus in v. 31 which is intriguing. It has been called a roundabout route by some commentators. He took a circuitous route passing north from Tyre through Sidon and then Southeast across the Leontes, continuing south past Ceasarea Philipi to the East of Jordan, and thus approached the lake of Galilee on its East side within the territory of the Decapolis. This movement is like going from Glasgow to Edinburgh via Perth or going from Lagos to Aba via Abuja and Portharcourt. It seems incredible; yes, but there is an explanation to this. This journey which was largely through Gentile towns may have been intended by Mark as an anticipation to the Church’s mission to the Gentile (remember, Mark’s audience were the Gentiles). Hence, through such a circuitous route, Jesus’ redemptive trip ‘opened up’ mission to the Gentile world. It was a sort of Ephphata to the Gentiles.
On arrival to the Decapolis region, the people brought to him a deaf man. Notice that the deaf man did not go on his own; he was brought to Jesus by others. These people wanted their brother to be well again. This is how the Church presents her ailing members to Jesus for healing. It is important to go to Jesus and to talk to Him as a community. Having heard the voice of the community, Jesus had the compassion to heal the man. Through our presentation by the community of faith, we are saved individually. The community becomes the foundation for individual redemption. The Church should therefore ‘be open’ to present her sick to Jesus. He took him aside in private. A deaf man could not hear. So, Jesus related with him in the language that he would understand: put his fingers into his ears, spat and touched his tongue. For whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver. The effort God makes to save us is equal to none. He identifies with us in our situation. And He relates to us according to our situation. Jesus by this showed a very tender consideration for the feelings of a man for whom life was very difficult.
Ephphatha implies divine re-creation and restoration. When we hear that Jesus touched and opened the sense organs of this man, we are reminded of the act of God in creating man out of dust (Gen. 2:7). He breathed into his nostrils the breadth of life, and the man became a living being. He opened the closed door, as it were, and life was born. This can be regarded as the primordial ephphatha which was the unlocking of the many organs in the body of man that he started existing. Here in the Gospel, Jesus unlocked the ear and the tongue that man may be restored to that initial wholesomeness. Jesus discontinued the man’s former mode of existence as he initiates completeness. This is revolutionary; a continuity in discontinuity. Beyond the physical opening is a spiritual opening in Christ. At the very final rite of the Sacrament of Baptism, an ephphatha is performed. Just as Christ who touched the deaf man, the minister touches the child’s ears to receive the word, and the mouth to proclaim the faith. This becomes the opening of the ‘door of faith’ which enables us to open the ‘door of mercy.’ Our minds easily go to the spiritual benefit of the holy doors opened during the year of mercy (2015-2016). The opening of those holy doors signified that the obstacles between God and men are removed and that a special pathway to Christ without the blockade of sin has been opened; ephphatha.
Indeed, he has done all things well. This was the people’s attestation to the healing work of Jesus. This reaction is also revelatory; in it the people opened up and declared that Jesus indeed has done all things well. This is like the verdict of God upon his own creation in the beginning: and indeed, it was very good (Gen. 1:31). hence, Jesus’ act of restoration and recreation was the beginning of a movement that has the goal of placing everything back to that initial goodness that man spoilt. Jesus desires to bring back the beauty of God to the world which man’s sins had rendered ugly. We too share as the new people of Christ in this mission to restore the beauty of creation. We bring our ailing members to Christ and beg him to heal them. We thank Him too when he heals them and so having restored our wholesomeness, we herald with one another in the Church: he has done all things well; because our hearts and minds have been opened; ephphatha. I wish you the grace of ephphatha; and may all the closed doors that should have been opened for you before now be made open this week and always. Amen. God bless you.
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