September
10, 2000 23rd
Sunday, "B"
H O M I L Y
Jesus spoke Aramaic and all the Gospels that we have are
written in Greek (although Mark was originally written in Aramaic). But there are a very few instances in the
Gospel where a word or an expression used by Jesus is reported in Aramaic even
in the Greek text; no doubt because that expression had struck the listeners in
a particular way. Apart from the cry on
the Cross (lama, lama sabachtani),
those instances are found in descriptions of healings operated by Jesus. We have to pay attention to them, because
they tell us something that the rest of the text does not say.
If we read the English translation a bit distractedly,
we just see that Jesus touched the tongue of the deaf and dumb man with saliva
and put his fingers into his ears and said: "be opened"; and the man
begin to hear and to speak correctly. So it seems that the tongue and the ears of the man obeyed Jesus' command
"be opened". But let's have a
second look at it. The Greek text does
not give Jesus command in Greek but in Aramaic: Ephphata, which is a verb in
the imperative mode, and in the singular form. So, the command is not addressed to the tongue and the ears, but to the
person: "Be opened", in the singular form. It is the sick person that is called to open up. And when he is opened everything in him that
is tied up and bound is released and freed. He is a free person again.
There are many other symbolic connections that are
revealed by apparent contradictions of the text. The man begins to speak normally when his ears are opened. There is therefore a deep connection between
hearing and speaking. A physical one, for sure, but also a symbolic and
spiritual one. Speaking is an important
form of communication between human being. (Not the only one; although our
Western culture has privileged it to an utmost degree, to the detriment of many
other forms of human communication). But communication means communion, it
implies an exchange that goes in both direction. The one who does not listen
does not communicate; and therefore he
really does not speak. He simply
produces vocal sounds. Interestingly
enough our text does not exactly say that the man was mute, or dumb; it says that he had a speech impediment (he
was mogilálos -- it is the only instance in the New Testament where that
expression is used). He could not speak
properly because he was not hearing. He
was not hearing because he was not open. After he had received Jesus' command: "Be opened", he began
both to hear properly and to speak properly.
Isaiah gives us a beautiful and very poetic description
of the messianic kingdom, fulfilling the deeply rooted human aspiration of a
return to the lost paradise where "Streams will burst forth in the desert,
and rivers in the steppe. The burning
sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water." This however will not happen as by magic. It will come when the eyes of the blind will
be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared, and the tongue of the dumb will
sing. This in turn will happen when
human being will be opened to one another and to God.
At one moment in history, humankind became totally open,
in one person, Mary of Nazareth. And
because she was totally open, she received the fullness of the Word of
God. Her whole being was penetrated by
it. Through her flesh and blood, as well as through the love of her heart, she
gave birth to God.
Her Son himself was so radically open that he made
himself totally vulnerable for us and to us; and his wounds have become the
most precious channel of communication with us.
May this eucharistic celebration, in memory of Him, be
both and expression and a source of our openness to him and to one another.
Armand Veilleux