6th Trinity III
Mark 7:31-37
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| Julia Stankova |
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 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 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 August Trinity
August 28, 2022
Mark 7:31-37
Before the sun rises, the world is hushed. It is as if creation awaits in silence the making of a new day. The one in the gospel who was deaf and mute was enclosed, enwrapped in silence. And silently, Christ worked to prepare him.
First, he drew him aside, apart from the crowds. He helped him come to himself. Then silently, Christ touched those senses in need of healing — the closed ears, the fettered tongue. Christ’s silent gesture spoke volumes. ‘Here,’ he says, ‘through your closed ears, you are self-enclosed. You can only hear your own thoughts. And thus your speech is captive.’
Then he looked heavenward. The deaf one, too, perhaps, raises his eyes to the heavens, to the profoundly silent world of the Father. And like a breath of fire — Ephphata! — Be Opened! — sweeps through him. The Word blazes within him. The man opens, he hears; he begins to speak, clearly, joyously. And this word of flame ignites the crowd and begins to spread. A new life begins.
Christ burns away our dross. It is he who removes our impediments and barriers. It is he who shows us the way into our future.
Ephphata, artist unknown
In our own moments of self-created silence, we pray to him
to release our future. In the words of Rilke:
I believe in all that has never yet been spoken
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear….
May what I do flow from me like a river
no forcing, and no holding back…
Then…I will sing you as no one ever has,….*
* Rilke’s Book of Hours, Macy and Barrows, page 58
