Friday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 12, 2021

Mark 7:31-37

Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

The Lord takes a bit of a circuitous route to return to Galilee.  He left Tyre and proceeded north to Sidon, and then east and then south to the country around Damascus, which is where the events in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass seems to take place.  The region at that time was inhabited mostly by Arameans and other semites, but was dominated by the Greek and Roman culture of its ten major cities, which enjoyed a special status within the Roman Empire.  Now, due to the grammar of the verse describing the Lord’s movements, some of the Fathers concluded that this miracle did not take place in the Decapolis itself but in Galilee near the frontier.  This actually makes more sense than if if it had taken place in the Decapolis, since the people who learned of the healing reacted as though they had seen his miracles before.

“And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.”  They brought the man to him because they wished to see a miracle, as we see from the fact that Jesus took the man apart from them — something he did not do otherwise.  This man suffered from a double infirmity.  His deafness and speech impediment may have come to him at once through a head injury, or he may have been born with a speech impediment and then lost his hearing in childhood.  The impediment may have been a stutter or an inability to form any coherent sound at all.  “He took him off by himself away from the crowd.”  Despite the crowd’s vulgar desire to see miracles, the Lord desired to heal the man out of his compassion for him.  Evidently, he took him out of the range of the crowd’s hearing, or even out of their sight, perhaps on the other side of a hill.  “He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue.”  These gestures of the Lord are highly unusual, and since they are unnecessary, strictly speaking, for the cure, he must be teaching the Apostles through this sign.  The use of the saliva may be related to an earlier verse in Mark’s Gospel in which the Evangelist tells us that people sought to be cured of their maladies by touching even the fringe of his mantle.  The point is that the power of the Lord Jesus was such that it extended even to his tassels and his saliva.  

“Then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ ” (that is, “Be opened!”).  This is an Aramaic word.  The fact that Mark gives us the exact word that Jesus spoke here is a testament to how its use must have struck St. Peter, who related the miracle to Mark long afterwards.  Mark’s quoting the word, even without the translation, does not make sense unless it had some special meaning for his original — Greek-speaking — audience.  This special meaning undoubtedly came from its use in a baptismal ritual Peter himself used.  In the ancient baptismal rite of the Church, which was altered in the early 1970’s, before the baptism the priest touches the nostrils (in place of the lips) and the ears of the candidate for baptism, moistened with his saliva, at the same time saying, “Ephphatha which means, be opened.”  The new rite of baptism also includes the touching of the person’s ears and lips, though after the baptism and without the priest’s saliva, but without the Ephphatha.  Instead, the priest says to the newly baptized: “The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May he soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father.”  The loss of the Aramaic word is unfortunate because its use was ancient.  More importantly, it was used not only to address the candidate for baptism, but also heaven.  “Be opened” was a command from the priest as alter Christus, telling the heavens to open for the one about to be baptized. 

“And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.”  There is no period of recovery.  The Lord’s power is instant and completely effective.  The people of the crowd will acknowledge this when they say, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”  

“He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.”  Jesus gives the gifts of hearing and speaking to the man without condition.  His gifts are as free as they are complete.  But he does warn the crowd to not spread the news of the cure around.  The Lord may have given this order for a number of reasons.  As when he commanded demons not to speak about him “because they knew him”, the Lord may not have desired the testimony of these particular people.  This would speak to their character, of which we gain some insight due to the fact that they disobeyed the command of the one who had shown such mercy.  But the Lord lavishes his gifts upon the unworthy as well as on those who truly love him because the nature of love is to love without expecting to be loved in return.