This week’s Sunday Mass readings are a true gift from our Church. The Church in Her wisdom has been able to connect for us the hope of salvation described by Isaiah, and find it fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.
Our first reading was written during and after the Babylonian exile when the Jewish people were exiled from their ancestral home, their promised land given to them by God. Listening to Isaiah’s words you can hear his desperation, but instead of righteous anger his words are some of the most beautiful words of poetry in the Hebrew Bible. “Here is your God!” he tells us. The God of love who will make “the lame leap like a stag!”
These words are beautiful, but it would be remiss of us to think that they belong only to a particular time and people. Isaiah’s poetic cry is for all of us — feeling like we too may feel exiled, alone, seemingly in exile from what we know. In our Gospel reading we see Jesus healing the deaf man and if you are like me, may wonder what the first reading has to do with the Gospel story.
As some of you may know, my mother is terminally ill. When praying for her over this week’s scriptures it may seem easy to ask our Lord that her physical body be healed in the same way the deaf man with a speech impediment was so completely, physically healed by Jesus. For us, the healthy, who have begged like the deaf man for healing of our loved ones’ suffering from disease, grief, mental illness or addiction, we may think that our prayers are unanswered.
But I think the answer to our prayers can be found in Jesus’ use of the enigmatic word: “Ephphatha!” — in English, “be open!”
A quick departure to understand what disease in ancient Palestine, where Jesus lived, meant: Any physical defect or contagion was seen as a person afflicted by God. We see this idea of, disease as punishment, when the disciples ask Jesus, “Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parents’ sin?” (John 9:2) Jesus is telling us, as prophesied by Isaiah, God is a God of love. “Here is your God.” God the healer. That those who are suffering are not being punished. Here is your God, suffering with you and experiencing this difficulty alongside you.
Christ, in his abundant love for us is challenging us, to be exactly “Ephphatha,” to be quite literally open — open to possibility, to all the joys that come from taking care of men and women, family members who are ill. Christ is reminding us to be open to the great hope before us, namely that this suffering is not in vain, that it is not a punishment, that like the ancient Jews exiled, our God will restore spiritual health, will allow us to be open to the amazing little miracles healthcare providers experience through pain and, if we are open to this, we’ll see “The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water.”
Have a great week.
I’ll be seeing you,
Elliot