“Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, ‘Be opened’” (Mk 7:34).
The actions and the words that Jesus uses while performing the miracle in today’s gospel are quite unusual for Him. He takes the man who is dumb and deaf to a lonely place, puts His finger in his ears, applies saliva to his tongue, looks up to heaven in prayer, and uses a mysterious word. They give a somewhat mystic, ritualist and magical feel to the whole action of performing this miracle. Most of the time, Jesus commands or touches the people and healing takes place. But in this case, Jesus engages the deaf and dumb person with many ritualistic activities.
Deaf and dumb means total isolation. They neither can hear nor can speak. Helen Keller thought that deafness is a far greater disability than blindness. This man was both deaf and dumb. Since his disability was not visible externally, he never got any sympathy from others. Jewish religious beliefs of that time made his life a bit worse. Every disability was considered a punishment from God, but deafness was regarded as a curse because the person is prevented from hearing the word of the Lord proclaimed and be saved.
In the first reading, to the people in the Babylonian exile, prophet Isaiah proclaimed the future hope saying, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Is 35:5). Israel had become deaf, dumb, and blind. They had become slaves in the foreign land. They had lost their dignity and with that their hope. The terrible calamities brought darkness to their lives and now they could not speak or hear the word of God which could give them comfort.
Isaiah realized that they need a messiah to raise people’s hope to see things clearly. Only the word of God, who would become flesh, could open the eyes of the people, so that they could see beyond their suffering and hear the message of love. The healing that Jesus performed has the same symbolic meaning of Isaiah. The deaf and the dumb man does stand for all humanity.
We need to hear the word “Ephphatha” from Jesus from time to time. The socio – political – religious situation around us can blind us and make us deaf and dumb. Mass media and other form of communication may mislead us and take us to the recesses of darkness. We must remind ourselves that the Word of God has the power to open our hearts, illumine our minds and take away our blindness. It brings us hope and new life.
“Ephphatha” – “Be Opened.”
–Fr. Ranjan D’Sa, OCD