Friday, September 6, 2013

6th August Trinity, 2007, All That Happens

Mark 7, 31-37
6th Trinity August

As he was again leaving the region around Tyre, he went through the country around Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the region of the ten cities of the Decapolis. They brought to him one who was deaf and who spoke with difficulty, and asked him to lay his hands on him. And he led him apart from the crowds by himself, laid his finger in his ears, and moistening his finger with saliva, touched his tongue, and looking up to the heavens, sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphata, be opened.” His hearing was opened and the impediment of his tongue was removed and he could speak properly. And he commanded them not to say anything to anyone. But the more he forbade it, the more they widely they proclaimed it. And the people were deeply moved by this event, and said, “He has changed all to the good: the deaf he makes to hear and the speechless to speak.


6th Summer Trinity
August 26, 2007
Mark 7: 31-37

Our eyes are on the front surface of our body. Our ears, however, our hearing capacity, comes from somewhere deeper. We can hear from more than one direction.

Last week’s gospel reading depicted the healing of human sight. Through the interworking of Christ and the soul who was ardent for healing, the human being was able to ‘look up and see again’. Looking up, he saw Christ Jesus.

Today’s reading is the sixth step of ten on the way toward Michaelmas. Today the healing of the human constitution goes deeper. Here we have someone who can barely speak and cannot hear. He is cut off. He has lost the ability to reach out and initiate his own healing. His friends have to bring him to Christ. And interestingly, after he is brought, Christ leads him apart and acts upon him in a way that is both individual and intimate. Touch, and the fiery word ‘Ephphata’ – be opened—address both body and soul.

Humanity today is in great danger of being self-encapsulated, of being cut off from the world of earth, from the world of the divine spirit, and from other human beings. Not only do we not see; we also cannot hear the voices who would converse with us. We are spiritually deaf.

Christ came to remove the impediments that block our participation in conversation with the divine. Indeed, he is still here, as the Angel of healing.

At the beginning of the Act of Consecration of Man, a bell rings three times. The resonating tone awakens our hearing, so that we can begin our conversation with the triune God, with the Father, the Son, and the healing spirit. We ask for healing. We ask that our prayers reach God’s ear. We ask for grace. And one day we may be healed enough to hear the answer that St. John of the Cross heard, when he asked God what grace was. The answer he heard was, “All that happens.”[1] For grace comes from all directions.

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[1]“ What is Grace”, St. John of the Cross, in Love Poems from God, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 321.