BE OPENED TO THE TRIPLE PATH

Reflections on the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time: Isaiah 35:4-7a; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37

Jesus passes through the pagan territories of Tyre and Sidon and the region of the Decapolis on his way to Galilee. It is during this tedious journey that he encounters and heals a man suffering from speech and hearing impediments. Interestingly, this healing episode is pregnant with several minute details that have a deep spiritual significance. We discern three openings in the Gospel passage that carry valuable lessons for our discipleship. 

1. The community opens the path to an encounter: 

“People brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him”. It is interesting to note that it is neither the sick man nor Jesus who takes the initiative to realise this encounter but the community. Just like the case of the paralytic who is lowered down a hole in the roof over Jesus by four of his friends (Mark 2:3-11), it is the community that paves the way to the miraculous and healing encounter between Jesus and the sick man. This tiny trivia reveals that our spiritual pilgrimage is not an exclusively private affair. We are constantly accompanied by a community of faithful, with whom we share our beliefs, convictions, problems, questions, and experiences.

James, in the second reading, insists on this ecclesial dimension of our discipleship, when he asks us to show no partiality between the rich and the poor. How do we welcome a well-dressed man in our BCCs, parishes, families, and communities? Do the poor also get an equally enthusiastic and cordial welcome? James’ question probes our conscience, “Have you not made distinctions among yourselves?”. Our contemporary Church continues to face this crucial challenge of becoming an inclusive community that carries the hopes of those in need. Can we open ways for those in the margins to encounter the mercy and healing that Jesus still has to offer to our world plagued with impediments?

2. Jesus opens the path to healing:

Observe what Jesus does immediately after the crowd presents the man to him. Mark reports, “He took him off by himself away from the crowd”. Yes, the community has an important role to play in the faith journey of this man. However, the journey does not stop there. Jesus challenges the man to undertake a personal journey with him. We know that ‘leaving the crowd’ in the Gospels signifies retiring for a moment of intimate relationship with the Father in the silence of prayer. Parallelly, in Gethsemane, Jesus “takes Peter, James and John along with him” to pray (Mark 14:33).

In the privacy of this moment of prayer, Jesus looks up to heaven, a gesture that not only reveals Jesus’ intimacy with the Father but also the fact that he is completely dependent on him to carry out his mission. Jesus then groans (sighing or moaning) to indicate that he identifies with the pain that this man has had to endure due to his impediments. He then declares, “Ephphatha!” meaning, “Be opened!”. Jesus opens the life of this man to the grace of his presence and liberation. He breaks the barriers that isolated him in the isolated world of his impediments to set him free. Led by his community to this encounter, the man now personally experiences the healing presence of the Messiah.

3. The healed man opens the path to witness: 

The healing opens the door to missionary witness. The crowd which brought the man to Jesus now proclaims, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak”. They are ordered personally by Jesus not to tell anyone and the reason behind this instruction is quite obvious. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus does not wish to draw attention to himself, especially in the context of the growing hostility with the powers that be. It would therefore be prudent to fly under the radar of the religious and political authorities and carry on his work at the grassroots level.

However, the crowds’ zeal for witness compels them to announce what they had seen and heard. Mark reports, “The more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it”. We are reminded of the declaration of Peter and John in Acts 4:20, “or we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard”. Our community-assisted path to a personal encounter with Jesus inspires us to open paths to proclaiming our faith experience. May our Blessed Mother inspire us to participate in this triple opening that involves our ecclesial community, personal faith journey, and courageous witness.