EPHPHATHA!
BE OPENED!
The title of my homily for this 23 Sunday in Ordinary Time
B, comes from today’s Gospel, “Ephphatha! Be opened.”
As you know Mark tells us what the Aramaic word, “Ephphatha”
means: “Be opened.”
Some people are deaf. Some people can’t speak. Some people
are blocked. Some people are stuck. Some people are not free.
And Jesus says to all people, “Ephphatha! Be Opened!”
It’s the same message we hear from the Book of Isaiah the prophet - whom we know Jesus read
- clearly when he opened up the scriptures in the synagogue at Nazareth in his inaugural
address.
THE OTHER GUY
The obvious thing everybody does is to want the other person
to change - the other guy or gal to be open - and they don’t see the plank or
log jam in their own eye - in their own person - in their own self - as Jesus
pointed out.
We have our list of
people we want to see change. I am on some people’s list. You’re on some
people’s list. We’re all on someone’s list.
And remember the line in the song in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado, “I’ve got a
little list…. I’ve got a little list - of society offenders - who never will be
missed.”
And on our list -
under the name each of the persons we want to see change - we have a list of
the things about them that we would like them to change. How they speak. How
they don’t seem to hear. How they act or don’t act. How they behave. To us, the other person is deaf or mute or
dumb. They don’t listen. They don’t see. And when they speak, they are dumb -
just plain stupid.
To get a lot out of the Gospel for today, we have to see
that I am the deaf man with the speech impediment. It’s me. It’s not the other
person. It’s me. And the prayer for today is to beg Jesus to heal me.
It’s the old message we have heard a dozen times, “Be aware
when you point a finger at someone else, three fingers are pointing back at
yourself.
And in the Gospel for today, Jesus takes the man off by himself - away from the
crowd - and puts a finger into the man’s ear and then Jesus spits, touches the
man’s tongue, looks up to heaven, groans, and says, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be
opened!”
And the man’s ears are opened and his speech impediment is removed and he
speaks plainly.
Here I am Jesus. Stop! Do this for me! This is my prayer for
today.
THE KID IN THE RETREAT HOUSE
Once upon a time there was a kid - named Jack - who did
dishes in a retreat house where I worked. He
was deaf as a wall. And when he spoke, he yelled difficult to understand
garbled language. As a result, he was difficult to be with. He was avoided.
I have a life observation: strange rangers are avoided. The
more they are avoided - the stranger they become. The stranger they become, the
more they are avoided. And on and on and on. It’s a vicious circle.
In warm weather, when the basement windows to the retreat
house kitchen were open, you could hear
Jack banging dish trays on the stainless steel table runway that led to the dish washer - as well as hear him yelling
- and yelling very loudly. He couldn’t hear himself, but we could.
People avoided him. People found him difficult.
In that same kitchen doing dishes, was his brother Danny who
did not have those handicaps his brother had.
Whenever I read today’s gospel I think of Jack - the brother
with the handicap. Did the man in the gospel have the same problems as Jack?
During my time there - two moments stand out with regards
this kid.
The first moment was a high school retreat for girls. After
lunch when they were having a break some of the girls looked in the open window
down into the kitchen and spotted the two brothers doing the dishes. They had
eyes only for Danny - no eyes for Jack.
Unfortunately, Jack thought they were looking through the
window at him and he told a few of us that he loved it - that the girls found
him good looking and they were staring at him. His brother Danny said nothing.
After the two brothers finished the dishes - and the kitchen staff put things away -
sometimes they would gather outside if the weather was nice and sit on some
benches and just chew the fat.
I noticed that Jack was always by himself - at least 15 to
20 yards away from the kitchen staff. His social skills were minus 10 to say
the least.
I wasn’t listening to today’s readings that day. To be
honest, it was much easier being with normal people - so that’s who I was
standing with as a group of girls came up the macadam road towards us. They spotted Danny - the hunk - the good
looking brother. They went over to him to see him up close and personal. Hey it
was a retreat without boys.
It was a crushing moment for Jack. He realized the girls were not interested in him at all.
I saw him slam his hand into a tree and he ran inside - down into the kitchen.
We had this old 91 year old priest. He loved to work on the
lawns. Want to make it to 91, rake lawns. Keep moving. His nick name was Teddy.
I spotted him about 100 yards away. So I went to Teddy and told him what
happened to Jack - he had to turn up his hearing aid at first. He put his rake
up against the tree and went down the steps to the kitchen basement to find
Jack and talk to him. And that he did.
To me it was like Jesus going to the man in today’s gospel
and healing him. Teddy and Jack could talk. I had noticed that - and it was
good for both of them. Teddy brought a smile back to Jack’s face.
The second thing that happened to Jack was the operation. He
went to a specialist in a hospital in New
York City and they put some wires into his head and he had to wear an electronic pack on his
side. Slowly he learned to hear and translate basic sounds - and his face was
amazing when he could hear sounds now - and he slowly learned to hear and to
speak better.
Imagine being a doctor, imagine being a technician and you
are able to get a person to hear and to speak for the first time. Imagine being
a doctor and you help a person see for the first time because of a new invention that has some kind of new
breakthrough? Imagine being a speech therapist?
That’s the story of someone else - who was able to learn how
to speak better and to hear a bit. What about me?
TODAY’S SECOND READING
Today’s second reading brings this looking at self stuff
into sharper focus. It’s from the Letter
of James.
James writes about what he sees in his local community.
What do we see in our community, our parish, our Mass - this
7 AM Sunday Mass - with it’s regulars - and with some strangers - where do we
hear this second reading hitting home with an ouch.
James writes, “My brothers and sisters, show no
partiality….”
I don’t know about you, but I’m guilty about partiality over
and over and over again.
James tells us about his community - a man comes in with
gold rings and fine clothes and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in,
don’t we all pay more attention to the rich man?
James says that we make distinctions about people. He says
we judge.
He’s writing all this so that we can see that we can be
closed to some people - because of their age, weight, color, clothes, accent,
affiliations, mannerisms, you name it - James is challenging us to be open.
He’s saying to his community what Jesus said, “Ephphatha -
Be opened.”
CONCLUSION: SOME
HOMEWORK
This week be open to one person you would ignore. Do it because you heard today’s readings and you
know Jesus is talking to you: Ephphatha: Be opened.”
