Be opened

In the first reading of today’s Mass Isaiah prophesied that when the Messiah arrives, the blind will see, the deaf will hear and the tongues of the mute will be made loose. This is what happens in today’s Gospel, Jesus helping a deaf and mute man to hear and to talk. Normally the deaf don’t talk because they cannot hear themselves. The Gospel uses the Hebrew expression, Ephatha, “Be opened”, an imperative command, that mandates the body to obey the power of God. This expression is so peculiar of the Hebrew language, that they didn’t want to translate it.

This is what happens during the baptismal rite, when the priest says the Ephatha prayer, touching the ears and the mouth of the baby saying “may Jesus soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith.” Sometimes the priest cannot touch the lips of the baby, because he has a dummy. This is what we are asking today from Jesus, as if we are still babies, to unblock our ears to listen to his voice, and to unbind our tongue not to be afraid to defend our faith.

In the same way our bodily senses help us to connect with the outside world, our spiritual senses allows us to touch the things of the other life. Somebody said that in heaven we are going to have infinite ways of reaching God. Saint Paul talks about the good aroma of Christ that attracts us to him. Psalm 23 reminds us to “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” Saint Thomas the apostle when he placed his fingers in Jesus’ wounds, he touched and believed. Five wounds, five senses. To perform the miracle Jesus introduced “his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue.” We are body and soul. We need to feel the effects of the spiritual things, that’s why the sacraments have matter and form.

Hearing and seeing are the most important senses for us. We rely a lot on our eyes, but from the point of view of the faith, our ears are crucial. We have the Latin expression: Fides ex audito, the faith comes through the ear. Even though through our eyes we can grasp things quickly, people say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but through slowly listening to an argument we can reach deeper into things. When Saint Paul came back from his vision in heaven, he said: Audivi arcana verba, “I heard mysteries, which man is not allow to utter.” God speaks directly to our heart. He doesn’t need the internet. Those words are engraved into our being. We should adapt our ear to be able to hear God’s voice. Some people have the ability to hear sounds of a pitch, higher than normal. Dogs bark when an ambulance goes by. Christians can see and hear things others can’t. Elijah discovered God in a soft breeze, like a whistle.

The other spiritual sense we need to develop is our contemplative look. We need to ask him like the blind man: “Lord, let me see.” It is very human: if we don’t see, we don’t move. We ask Jesus today to open our eyes and to clean our ears, to see his beautiful face, to listen to his harmonious voice, to be able to touch his loving heart.

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