6th August Trinity, 2011, Sickness of Sin

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.

6^th August Trinity

August 28, 2011

Mark 7: 31-37

A lump of clay is just a blob of matter. But under the hands of a skilled potter, it can take on an astonishingly intricate form and function.

A part of the sickness of sin is that our bodily constitution, our mortal clay, dulls our ability to truly see, to truly hear, to truly perceive. Through his intimate touch, Christ interacts with the deaf mute like a potter shaping clay. He touches his ears and tongue. He makes him into a vessel as He speaks the fiery word: Ephphata—be opened. The man is now free to receive, to contain and to interact with the world—just as God intended.

The Act of Consecration of Man is a place where we take ourselves aside to be healed by Christ. We ask that our lips be cleansed by Christ, that His word flow through our lips. We pray that our prayer reach God’s ear.

Thus does Christ’s healing, His touch, remove our dull impediments, He opens us to conversation not only with the earthly world, but also with the divine. And the angels rejoice, for He changes all things to the good. We who are deaf He makes to hear; and we who are speechless, to speak, just as God intended.

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