September 5, 2021
XXIII Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B
What is striking, in the story of the healing reported in today’s Liturgy (Mk 7: 31-37), are the gestures of Jesus: Jesus brings the deaf-mute aside, puts his fingers in his ears, touches his tongue with His saliva, sighs, utters a word (Mk 7: 33-34).
Why are these gestures necessary to heal this sick man?
At other times Jesus heals simply by putting his hand on people, others even with a word. In this passage, people ask Him to impose His hand on the sick, as He did at other times. But Jesus performs a brief and intense liturgy, in which the corporeal, physical component is strongly emphasized.
These gestures refer to the story of the creation of man (Gn 2:7), where God molds His creature with His own hands, kneading it with the water He created, blowing the breath of life in his nostrils. And only in this way does man become a living being.
In confirming this connection with the story of creation, there is the reaction of the people, who, on seeing this prodigy, exclaim: “He has done all things well: He makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak!” (Mk 7: 37), an obvious reference to the refrain that enunciates the days of creation, at the end of which “God saw that it was good.”
The theme of the new creation is dear to the evangelist Mark, who in this way tells the meaning of the mission of the Son of God among men, as a new beginning, a new life brought by Jesus and given to everyone.
It can be seen immediately, in the story of the temptations of Jesus in the desert: unlike the other Synoptics, Mark does not dwell on individual temptations, but adds an important detail in closing: Jesus “was among wild beasts and the angels ministered to him” (Mk 1:13). It is possible for the new man to live a life reconciled with all creation (the wild beasts), and in full communion with the world of God (the angels).
This is, therefore, the new life that Jesus came to restore: a life of full communion.
God, in the beginning, created man “open”, that is, in relationship, listening, in dialogue: He created him capable of friendship. It is sin that has closed humans in themselves and in their fears.
And the deaf-mute is precisely the figure of fallen humanity, a man locked in himself, incapable of relationship with God and others. It should be noted, in this regard, that unlike other sufferers in the Gospel, the deaf-mute does not turn to Jesus. Many others will do it, shouting to the Lord their need for salvation. But this is exactly what is missing from the deaf-mute, the ability to cry out and ask for help, which is the first step, the door to the relationship that saves. So he needs others to bring him before the Lord, and pray for him (Mk 7:32).
At this point we understand why gestures are necessary: they are the first form of contact, the simplest, the most immediate, for those who have lost the ability to listen and speak; it is Jesus’ touch that makes man again capable of listening, again capable of a full relationship.
And we also understand the reason for this word, which Jesus speaks to him, “Ephetha”, which in its literal translation means “open completely”.
The deaf-mute man, sick of loneliness and isolation because of sin, is a man closed in himself: and he lives as much as he opens up, as he reopens to the gift of the Word that puts him in relation. This is the new creation.
A final note: the term translated as “mute”, actually describes a man awkward in speaking: it appears only here in the New Testament, and once in the Old, in Isaiah (Is 35.6, cf. 1st Reading).
In Isaiah, the work of the Lord’s salvation – which restores sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, the speech to the dumb – was destined for the chosen people, and placed in a context of threat and punishment towards the pagan peoples (Is 34).
Here, on the contrary, the recipient is really a pagan, in whose territory Jesus has arrived, where he encounters welcome and openness: the new creation, therefore, is for all, without distinction, and the touch of the Lord’s hand reaches anyone who needs of life.
+ Pierbattista
