He took him aside…

Again 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.” (Mark 7:31-37)

In His three years of public ministry, Jesus was liberating and healing people right and left. Thousands followed Him, coming as close to Him as they could. In a homily on this particular passage, a priest shared the wisdom of the Syriac saint, St. Ephraim. St. Ephraim taught that God came down from Heaven to earth. In Jesus, by touching His humanity, we can discern His divinity. And people did. The gospels give us just a few of what must have been many, many healings of people. By touching Him, or by being touched by Him, or simply by being in His presence, all that was needed was for them to be healed was to believe. Their faith opened them to the miracle. 

“Be opened!”

Healing is personal. By responding to the grace of the Holy Spirit, we open ourselves to Him. From that, if we continue in the trust that comes from faith, we can cooperate with grace to receive the healing we long for. Not just anyone brought the man to Jesus; these were people who believed in Him to heal. Their belief opened their hearts to compassion for the man. 

We see the intimacy of this experience of God by seeing how personalized our Savior made it. It is said that, in the ancient world, saliva was considered therapeutic. The man was deaf; Jesus used gestures rather than words. Jesus didn’t speak; He spat. And then the man could speak. Jesus didn’t say anything to the man. Putting His fingers in the man’s ears, Jesus groaned. A groan of sympathy for the man which in itself was a prayer to Our Father on the man’s behalf (Cornelius À Lapide).  Then He spoke only one word: Ephphatha. An Aramaic word: it is said that this word in Aramaic is easier to lip read than its corresponding word in Greek. Ephphatha! And the man could hear. 

He took him off by himself away from the crowd.

Like the deaf mute, our Lord wants to separate us from the crowd, to take us aside. Being alone with Him to heal us is the Divine Intimacy we all desire within our heart. When we have no other reference point but Him, we see our own incompleteness and powerlessness. In that intimacy we feel our weakness, but our weakness is our greatest strength because it most renders us surrendered and available to His healing power. Grace builds upon nature in this way. As long as we remain in this state of grace, His light of Glory will complete our incompleteness and we become vessels of grace to others. 

Trust in our Lord. He wants to embrace you in your weakness. 

It is good to serve God in darkness and trial! We have only this life to live by faith.

–St. Therese of Lisieux

Ad Marjorem Dei Gloriam 😊

(Image by James Tissot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)