The Healing of the Deaf Man

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus heals a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. This is a story about Jesus’s healing power, and in it we find clues about our understanding of sacrament. We are struck by the physical means used to heal the man, the use of spittle and touch. The Church continues to celebrate the sacraments using physical means. In the Sacrament of Baptism, water and oil are used to show the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, we are anointed with holy oil on the forehead and the hands. In the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. We are a sacramental people who believe that God’s grace is given to us through these physical signs. 

 

Some, however, see in this Gospel an image of the proclamation of the good news of Jesus to the Gentiles. The geographic references tell us that Jesus is journeying through Gentile territory. Jesus had previously visited this region and healed a person possessed by a demon. Jesus was already famous there, which explains why people brought the deaf man to him.The story that precedes this reading in Mark’a Gospel sets the stage. Jesus encounters a Gentile, a Syrophoenician woman who asks him to heal her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus engages her in a dialogue about not feeding to dogs the food intended for children. Jesus is struck by the woman’s great faith when she replies that even dogs eat the food that falls from the table, and he heals her daughter immediately. The faith of this Greek woman compels Jesus to respond to her plea.

Mark shows that Jesus’s own mission affirms the early Church’s mission to the Gentiles. This was a significant issue to the early Christian community, which found that the good news of Jesus took root and spread quickly among the Gentiles. Yet there is an irony in the story of healing that Mark tells. Jesus gives the man the gift of speech, but then tells him not to use it. Jesus asks that the news of his healing power, which is evidence of his identity as the Messiah, not be spread. This is a recurring motif in Mark’s Gospel and is sometimes called the “messianic secret.” 

All of us baptized Catholics are called to bring God’s healing to others in different ways. Of course the priest anoints the sick which continues Christ’s healing ministry. We may all pray for those who are ill, help care for them, clean their homes, bring them cooked meals when needed. For too long we as a people have left too much to “others”to do for the sick in body, soul or mind. Let us ask the Lord for forgiveness for not personally reaching out to those in need. Let us then ask the Lord to show us what He wants us to do to for others in love. Every act of love, be it a service to others, a kind word, a gentle touch, a home cooked meal, time given to just be with the other...these things bring healing and we are called to be a healing balm to the world.

--Deacon Joseph Pasquella

The Prison Door Is Wedged Open by the Cross of Christ

The Prison Door Is Wedged Open by the Cross of Christ

St. Paul speaks of slavery under the law. Jesus purchased us from slavery and we are free, but we retain our free will and can choose slavery in our lives. St. Paul says, “Do not submit your selves to slavery again.” 

Because we are human beings, we have an inclination to sin. We keep going back to slavery and put ourselves into slavery again instead of going forth into the freedom of God. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God understood that just setting us free was not enough. He had to initiate a way to keep the doors open to himself. We are in the prison of sin, but Jesus opened the prison door by his sacrificial death on the cross. And once we realize that, just like anyone who has been in prison, we see that the door is open to freedom from sin and we run out once we see that the open door that leads to Jesus. 

However, prison can become comfortable, and so, when things get tough, we might run back into the prison because we were comfortable there at least to a degree. However, Jesus has pried the prison door open with his cross. You cannot lock yourself in prison again. The cross of Jesus is wedged in the prison door and keeps the door open, and we can always walk out at any time. We can release ourselves from prison again through the sacraments, the gifts of baptism, confession, Eucharist, the anointing of the sick. These keep the door to our prison open. 

God allows the door to be always open for sinners who return to their prison of sin. They cannot shut the door to his mercy. Even the gift of the anointing of the sick, the last rites, is a way to present the love of Jesus Christ in the last hour. The door to God’s mercy is always open, and sometimes God himself goes in and carries the person out of the prison of brokenness when that person will not walk out themselves. The power of the sacraments carries them out of this prison. 

There is a constant flow of grace in the Catholic Church, a flowering of grace at every moment. The wounds of Christ were not healed over in his hands, feet, and side. The wound in his side is the Church which is ever flowing with the blood of mercy and the water of forgiveness. 

We can pity the Pharisees who always considered the external as a way to salvation. Christ called them to interior change. In his discourse with the Pharisees, Jesus, thinking of people caught up in sin, said, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.' (Luke 11:39-41)

God sees the charity in one’s heart. God knows a person’s behavior and he understands that some people may be away from him, but he sees the charity in their heart. Almsgiving makes them clean on the inside, even if they are not behaving very well on the outside. Some people who have turned away from God can be more godlike in their lives than those who pretend to be godlike, because God sees their heart of charity. He knows a loving heart when he sees it. Charity covers a multitude of sins. 

It is good to reflect on the freedom that God gives us. The chains with which we lock ourselves up are no longer usable because the chains are broken and the locks no longer work. We cannot lock ourselves away from God or go back in our prison and close the door where he cannot enter. The cross is holding the door open and, if we do not go out to God ourselves, at the very last moment, through the Sacrament of the anointing of the sick, he may come into us and carry us out. And praised be God forever. 

--Father David Engo, FBM