Friday of Week 5 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
31Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went by way of Sidon toward the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one, but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
Commentary on Mark 7:31-37
Jesus is still in gentile territory. He has now moved east from the Mediterranean coast to the interior, on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, in the area of the Decapolis (Greek for “Ten Towns”).
A deaf and mute man is brought to Jesus for healing. He takes the man aside, puts his fingers in the man’s ears, touches his tongue with spittle, looks up to heaven and prays, “Be opened”. Immediately the man’s ears are opened, his tongue loosed and he is able to speak plainly. As often happens in this Gospel, the people who witnessed the miracle are told not to say anything about it to anyone:
…but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
The people “were astounded beyond measure” and they said:
He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.
As often happens in the Gospels, and especially in Mark, what we have here is much more than a miracle story, i.e. the healing of a physical ailment. We are approaching a climactic part of this Gospel, and this passage leads into it. What Jesus does to this man is something that is meant to happen to every one of his followers, including his immediate disciples.
We all need to have our ears opened so that we can hear and understand in its fullness the message of Jesus. In addition to that, once we have heard and understood, the natural consequence is that we go out and speak openly to the world about what we have heard and understood. Both hearing and speaking are inseparable for the Christian disciple.
And so, in the older form of the baptismal rite, the celebrant touched the ears of the one being baptised and put saliva on the lips (saliva was then still believed to have healing powers). This rite symbolises the grace of the sacrament by which the newly baptised (in speaking about an adult) hears and accepts the Word of God, and undertakes the responsibility of proclaiming it in word and action.
And, as in today’s story, when we have truly experienced the power of that message and the love of God in our own lives, we cannot but do what that man did—broadcast it far and wide.
