Open our ears Lord!

XXIII Sunday “B” Mark 7:31-37 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. It seems that Jesus didn’ t have to do anything to heal the man’s speech impediment. He opened the man’s ears and the speech impediment was removed. If we can hear clearly we can speak clearly. If we can’t hear clearly we won’t speak clearly. If we are deaf we won’t be able to speak. It seems like there are a lot of deaf people doing a lot of speaking in the world today. The presidential elections are coming to a close in the United States right now and it seems that both candidates are fairly deaf. I don’t know who they are listening to, but they certainly aren’t listening to the people especially the poor and those in need in the US. I suppose the same is true here in Mexico, political candidates tend to be very deaf and as such when they speak it all comes out as gibberish. Many times the Church is the same, especially the leaders of the Church. At times they come out with directives and comuniques and we are just left scratching our heads thinking, “who are they talking to?” Or a better question is, “Who are they listening to?” I remember preaching a mission in a small rancho near Perote, Veracruz. There was a man who was fascinated that I could speak English. He would ask me to say something in English and he would began to laugh at my words. He asked me, “where did you learn English?” I said from my parents. He was fascinated to know that my parents spoke English but when I went to explain that they didn’t speak Spanish he was confused. He thought that everyone spoke Spanish and he couldn’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t be able to speak Spanish. I obviously speak English because it is the language I grew up with. There weren’t many people who didn’t speak English when I was growing up. The same is true for all of you. Your first language is Spanish because it is what you learned growing up. The curing of the man in the Gospel today makes perfect sense. In order to be able to speak clearly you need to hear clearly. Jesus says “Ephata” he opens the man’s ears and then he is able to hear clearly and once he is able to hear clearly, he is able to speak clearly. We come to Church today asking Jesus to open our ears. Not just so that we can hear physically, but spiritually as well. We all have ears, but very often we are not able to hear. Why is this? Because we are deaf. Not to noise, but to voice of Jesus. As Pope Francis says, it is the deafness of the heart. We have no time to hear Jesus’ word or to listen to one another. We need to make time to listen to Jesus every day. We need to listen to the Gospel and to the poor and those in need. Every day a little silence and listening. In the day of our baptism the priest touched our ears and tongue and said: “Ephphatha, be opened!” Open our ears. Jesus, we want to hear your Word; open our eyes Lord, we want to see your face. Open our hearts Lord we want to love like you. <

i>Jesus, please, open our ears so we can hear you in the pleading of the poor, in the cry of earth’s resources, in the cry of the war-torn, the immigrant, the hungry. Open our ears so we can hear you in the crash of the waves, the sound of children laughing, in the call of a friend, in favored music. We want to know you well; wherever you are— in all things. Open our deaf ears and loosen our tongues.

Anne Osdiek