Mark 7:37
He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.
Readings for Sunday: Isaiah, James, Mark
Reflection:
What is our speech impediment? How are we deaf? In Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus miraculously cures a deaf man with a speech impediment. While it was a physical cure, it points to something deeper in each one of us: that we often fail to hear God speaking to us, and we often fail to share his Word with our family, friends, and coworkers.
When an adult is going to be baptized into the Church, there are options to sign that person’s senses with the cross. This would occur during the Rite of Acceptance in the Order of Catechumens. The cross is traced on the person’s ears, eyes, lips, hands, forehead, heart, shoulders and feet. The idea is this: sin has closed us off, even in our senses, to God. Christ renews and recreates our sense to hear, sense, and speak of our Heavenly Father.
Something similar takes place in the Baptismal Rite for infants and small children. Not only is the child anointing on the head and on the chest/heart, but the priest or deacon may place his fingers on the lips and ears to declare, “Ephphatha,” just as Jesus did in this Sunday’s Gospel. To be united to Christ in baptism is to be reconfigured to Christ and his humanity.
Yet, we still sin after baptism and we still lack faith and virtue. In that way, we are, at least partially, deaf and mute.
Reflection Questions
- In what ways do I close myself off to hearing God’s Word today? Do I read my Bible or study the Catechism?
- Do I spend real time praying, meditating, and seeking to hear God that he may instruct me?
- Do I fail to share my faith because I am more concerned with what other people think of me than what God thinks?