Gospel for Sunday, September 08: Mark 7:31-35
XXIII Sunday Year B
31 Returning from the region of Tyre, he passed through Sidon, heading toward the Sea of Galilee in the midst of the territory of Decapolis. 32 And they brought to him a deaf-mute, begging him to lay his hand on him. 33 And taking him aside away from the crowd, he put his fingers in his ears and with his saliva touched his tongue; 34 then looking up to heaven, he uttered a sigh and said, “Effata,” that is, “Open up!” 35 And immediately his ears were opened, and the knot of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke correctly. 36 And he commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he commended him, the more they spoke of it 37 and, filled with astonishment, said, “He has done all things well; he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak!”.
Mk 7:31-35
Dear sisters and brothers of Misericordia, I am Carlo Miglietta, a doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it). Also today I share with you a short thought meditation on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
Before going deep into the mystery of the Bread, Jesus heals a deaf-mute.
v. 34: – Jesus sighs, looking up to heaven. This sighing is the expression of God’s suffering, but it is also the emission of the Holy Spirit: “He emitted the Spirit,” he will say at the Cross; here he commands “Effatà,” that is, “Open yourself”: it is Mark who translates this for us into Italian.
At the end of the first part (6:6-7:37) of the bread section (6:6-8:26) is this symbolic miracle (7:31-37). A deaf and stuttering man is healed, just as at the end of the second part (8:1-26) of the section a blind man will be healed (8:22-26). This deaf and stuttering man is the Church, it is we who have not been able to receive the mystery of the bread, who have not been able to hear the Word and therefore fail to proclaim it, and we stutter: we do not know what the True Bread is. We the Church are the deaf-mute who needs to be healed: God’s intervention is needed so that our heart of stone becomes a heart of flesh. Baptism, where conversion is healing, is needed to understand the Eucharist. Pliny the Elder documents the extensive therapeutic and exorcistic use of saliva in the Greco-Roman world. Saliva was also believed to contain the spirit: touching with one’s saliva thus meant transmitting one’s life force. Here saliva is reminiscent of the Baptismal rite, in which there is the rite of “Effata,” of “Opening.”
The first ones to whom Jesus opens their ears and uncloses their mouths are the pagans, they are the distant ones, they are those set apart from the world, but they become a symbol for us. We too need our ears to be opened, to stretch them to listen, only then can we proclaim the Gospel correctly.
v. 35: – He loosed the knot of his tongue, and spoke correctly. It is essential to listen to the Word, it is essential to read Scripture, it is essential to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to listen before we proclaim.
A number of reflections arise from these passages from Mark’s Gospel.
Let each of us learn to recognize the mystery of the Bread in order to welcome the Lord. Let each of us look at our own heart to see whether it is an individualistic heart, whether it is a heart attached to traditions, or whether it is a heart capable of goodness, of emotion, of love, of sharing (Mark 7:1-23).
Let each of us take our five loaves and two fish, and give them to our brothers and sisters, festively share with them. Let each one of us love. And each of us, when we have loved, will then be able to recognize the Lord and be able to recognize that the good of our lives is the Bread that feeds us (Mark 6:34-44).
And if we recognize that we are incapable of having a heart of flesh then let us humbly approach the Lord as the deaf-mute does here (and this is the meaning of Confession, the sacrament of Penance), and ask that he fill us with his Spirit, and open our ears, repeating over us this miraculous “Effata,” so that we may become able to understand the Word, and then to proclaim it with joy to all the nations (Mk 7:31-37).
From: C. MIGLIETTA, FAITH IN ALL SENSES. Hearing, sight, taste, smell, touch in the Bible and in the Magisterium of Pope Francis, with a preface by H.E. Msgr. Guido Fiandino, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Turin, Gribaudi, Milan, 2018
A heart that listens
Solomon is pleasing to God because instead of asking him for power and wealth he asks, “Give your servant a meek heart (lev shomèa)” (1 Kings 3:9). Our Bibles generally translate “meek,” or “intelligent”; but literally the king’s prayer is to have “a heart that is able to listen,” “a heart that listens” (shomèa is a present participle indicating the continuity of an action).
This is the best prayer: for “listening is better than sacrifices” (1 Sam 15:22). The term disciple (limmud) is a passive form of the verb learn, teach (lamad): the disciple is one who has the Word sealed in his heart: “Let this revelation be sealed in the hearts of my disciples” (Is 8:16).
It is obedient listening that puts us in deep communion with God: “Listen to my voice! Then I will be your God and you will be my people” (Jer. 7:23): ‘I will be your God and you will be my people’ is the so-called ‘formula of mutual belonging,’ which expresses a total love, like that between the Beloved and the Beloved in the Song of Songs: ‘My beloved is for me and I for him’ (Chr. 2:16). Therefore “he who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 3:6).
The true disciple is the one who lets God “open his ear.” So many times our translations speak of “opening the ear,” in the sense of paying attention to the speaker; but actually in the biblical text the reference is much deeper and more challenging. The piercing of the ear was the public gesture by which a Jew agreed to be forever the slave of another, renouncing the right to be freed after seven years: “If the slave says, ‘I am attached to my master, my wife, my children; I do not want to go free,’ then his master will bring him before God, make him stand by the knocker or doorpost and pierce his ear with the lesin; he will be his slave forever” (Ex. 21:6). It was the solemn promise to serve another forever, even giving up one’s freedom. The biblical texts that speak, therefore, of “opening the ear” are not just an invitation to listen, but express a commitment to become forever faithful servants of the Lord, giving one’s life to him, and therefore must be understood in this sense: “The Lord God … every morning makes my ear attentive so that I may listen like the initiated. The Lord God has opened my ear (ed.: made me his slave) and I have not resisted, I have not flinched” (Isa. 50:4-5); ”Sacrifice and offering you do not please; your ears you have opened to me (ed.: made me your slave). You did not ask for burnt offering and victim for guilt. So I said, ‘Behold, I come.’ On the scroll of the book of me it is written, that I do your will. My God, this I desire; your law is deep in my heart” (Sl 40:7-9). So not just listening, but obedience, faithfulness, persevering service.
But we must also be careful who we listen to: “Do not listen to the words of false prophets who prophesy for you; they make you believe vain things, they proclaim to you fantasies of their own hearts, not what comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Jer. 23:16). Jesus warns us, “See that no one deceives you; many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many… So if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, the Christ is here,’ or, ‘He is there,’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise” (Mt. 24:4-5, 23-24). And Paul, “For the day will come when sound doctrine will no longer be endured, but, for the itching to hear something, men will surround themselves with teachers according to their own lusts, refusing to listen to the truth in order to turn to fables” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Ephrem the Syrian, reiterating how listening can be a source of sin or salvation, recalled, “Death came in by Eve’s ear,” listening to the serpent’s words, “life came in by Mary’s ear,” because the very Word of God, received by her and made flesh in her womb, became redemption for the world.
Many times Jesus made the deaf to hear (Mk 7:37; 9:25): and a sign of the coming of the Messiah is precisely that “the deaf hear” (Lk 7:22). May the Lord open our hearts to hear the Word. And in this world confused by so many empty and often evil words, may the prophecy of the prophet Amos soon be fulfilled: “Behold, the days will come,” says the Lord God, “when I will send hunger into the land, not hunger for bread, nor thirst for water, but to hear the Word of the Lord” (Am 8:11).
Happy Mercy to all!
Anyone who would like to read a more complete exegesis of the text, or some insights, please ask me at migliettacarlo@gmail.com.