Is 35:4-7a
Ps 146
Jas 2:1-5
Mk 7:31-37
"Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart
and the tongue of the dumb shall sing."
Charles Jennens, the librettist for Messiah, gave this verse from today's first reading to Handel, who, for his part, composed the recitative that leads into the exquisite air, "He Shall Feed His Flock."
The images that follow in Isaiah's text: "streams in the desert," "rivers in the steppe" "thirsty ground becoming springs of water"—are images that promise
the same comfort and safety, beauty and peace, that Handel limned musically
when the libretto leapt from Isaiah to chapter eleven of Matthew's Gospel.
It is no surprise that Isaiah's prophecy, that the ears of the deaf would be opened
and the tongue of the mute would sing was joined with today's Gospel. Jesus, the Suffering Servant, who would be buffeted and spat upon, freed the deaf and the dumb from their silent prisons and returned them to themselves
and to society.
The Gospel is captivating because it describes Jesus efforts to effect the miracle. He touched the man's ears. He spat and touched his tongue.He looked up to heaven and groaned. Finally he said "Ephphatha."
This is one of the few miracle narratives in which Jesus seems to struggle
or to exert force in the battle against the evil one.
I'm fascinated by the description "he groaned." Why? What did the groan sound like? Did the tone rise, fall, or remain steady? Was it the groan of pain, of effort, or relief? How long did it last?
Of equal fascination is the question that we can ask about every healing miracle in the New Testament. What happened afterwards? We know the crowd did not obey Jesus' injunction against telling what they saw. I imagine the grapevine overheated quickly. Suppose there had been Twitter or the Internet. Imagine the comments and replies!
Nothing more is mentioned of the man. We don't know his response to the gifts of hearing and speech. Did he become a local celebrity or did life go on as usual? Place yourselves in the unwritten part of the narrative. Suppose you are the man's friend, or child, or neighbor. Did he change? How? Did your relationship with him change? How? What was the effect of being able to hear the Good News of Jesus on this renewed man and to share it fluently with others? What is the effect on you of witnessing what happened to him?
Several years ago I found a small book titled, The Hunted Priest on a bookshelf at the Abbey of Regina Laudis. It is the autobiography of Jesuit Father John Gerard who ministered in Elizabethan England during the fierce persecution
that accounted for the martyrdom of many Catholics who resisted the Protestant heretics.
Many of the Jesuit martyrs' names are more well known than Gerard, who was not martyred but died in Belgium at the age of 73. They included: Robert Southwell, Nicholas Garnet, Edmund Campion, and Brother Nicholas Owen, who was so skilled at designing and creating hiding places in homes, that some of them remain undiscovered today.
Many laymen and laywomen who sheltered priests and maintained chapels in their houses for the celebration of Mass also died, oftentimes after prolonged imprisonment and dreadful torture.
Gerard's autobiography is valuable because he gives a non-hysterical almost matter-of-fact description of the torture meted out to Catholics. The details of his escape from the Tower are definitely the stuff of a Douglas Fairbanks silent film.
He tells of many conversions and returns of heretics to the Church. Many of the men subsequently entered the Society or became priests. It appears that he
almost singlehandedly populated a monastery of Benedictine nuns in Belgium with English women he brought into or back to the Church. Like the deaf mute in the Gospel, their ears were unstopped and their tongues were freed. They preached the Good News in word and deed, at considerable risk to themselves and oftentimes paid for that preaching through financial penalties or with their lives.
Our challenge is to preach the news of Jesus crucified and risen from the dead,
no matter what. Once our ears have been opened and our tongues loosed we must use that which has been given to usto open the ears and give sight to others.
The promises in Isaiah: hearing for the deaf, speech for the mute, were already fulfilled in us at the time of baptism. The Church recalls those promises and reenacts today's Gospel narrative, every time she celebrates the sacrament of baptism. Toward the end of the ritual, in what is called The Ephphatha,
the priest touches the child's ears and mouth with his thumb and prays aloud:
"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."
For that reason we sing with the psalmist today,
Praise the Lord my soul.
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The photos are from the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration in Vermont. I've been doing some teaching there over the years and have been allowed a great deal of latitude with photography both in and outside the monastery itself.
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