Homily: 23rd Sunday in OT - Healing Spiritual Deafness

Our Gospel for today, from the seventh chapter of Mark’s Gospel, details Jesus’ healing a deaf man who also had a speech impediment. 

Throughout the Gospels Jesus performs many healing  miracles, in public, and he garnered quite a reputation for them.  Large crowds began coming to him to be healed. 

As the narrative commences, Jesus makes his way into the district of 10 cities called the Decapolis on the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee which were this mix of Jewish and Greek culture. A man possessed with a demon whom Jesus had exercised had gone off to the Decapolis to tell what the Lord had done for him, back in chapter 5, now Jesus comes to this place, and cures this deaf and dumb man.

Like many of the miracle stories, today’s Gospel is the story of a physical healing, yet it has a deeper spiritual meaning.  We know that Jesus physically cured this man of deafness and muteness, but what is the spiritual meaning here, is there such a malady as spiritual deafness, spiritual muteness, which Jesus wishes to cure us of?

All throughout the Bible we read about God speaking and Israel growing deaf to God’s word.  He speaks his commandments, they ignore them.  He calls them to repentence, they continue down their path to destruction.  He warns them not to return to the sins of their ancestors, and they disregard Him, thinking they know better.  Do we live in a similarly spiritually deaf culture these days? I think so.

Spiritual deafness is a great problem of the spiritual life; it’s when God is speaking to us, and we fail, intentionally, or out of laziness, to be attentive to the word of God.  

So this deaf man in today’s Gospel stands for all of us, up and down the centuries who are in need of better hearing, those who are deaf or oblivious to the word of God, those who perhaps have lost the ability to discern the speech of God amidst so many conflicting voices.  I think of our brothers and sisters who aren’t coming to Church on a regular basis who aren’t coming to hear and celebrate the Word of God and receive the word made flesh in the Eucharist. They’ve listened to the voices telling them that Church isn’t necessary, isn’t as important as what they have planned.  But, really every single one of us, myself included, are always in need of hearing God’s voice better.  Saint Paul says to the Romans that “faith comes from hearing”, and that’s a call to all of us, to hear better in order to grow in faith.

There is a latin word which means turning towards someone in order to hear them better.  Oboedire, from which we get the word obedience.  The attitude of the believer is always one of obedience—seeking every day to turn our ears away from false voices, towards the voice of God.

What is the reason we are not always well attuned?  For one, there are so many voices, so many sounds competing for our attention, aren’t there?  Think of all of the commercials, and media, and movies, and beeps and blips of video games, and music, literally, all the sounds that compete for our attention.  It’s nearly impossible to hear the word of God amidst all of that? When we spend more time with a cell phone in our hands than a bible or rosary, there is a problem.

Remember in the prophet Elijah when he says God’s voice was not in the thunder or the earthquake—the loud flashy things-- but a tiny whispering voice. 

But it’s not just the noises, but the messages.  Our culture seems to glorify every lifestyle, every opinion except the Christian message.  How many sitcoms do we watch where couples who are not married are living together, how many violent television shows glorify violent revenge over ones enemy.  Our culture seeks to normalize the sinful, and demonize the holy.  So sometimes spiritual deafness comes from listening to error over and over again without a critical ear.

And then, sometimes our deafness even comes from our own self-deception.  “Father is up there preaching again, he has nothing to say to me that I don’t already know.”  “I don’t need to pray, I’m fine; I don’t need to read the Bible, there is nothing in there for me.”  Folks, trust me, even priests sometimes fall into that sort of self-deception, mea culpa, mea culpa, but that doesn’t make it right.  We deprive ourselves of the spiritual growth God has planned for us when we stick our fingers in our ears, like little children, and say, “I’m not listening” 

Deafness to the word of God, ignorance of the Bible, self-deception, swimming in the sea of the noise of our culture, and failure to pray are reasons why we are like this deaf man in the Gospel today.

Additionally, we read that this deaf man in the Gospel is afflicted with a speech impediment.  The deaf who are unable to hear how language is articulated have a great difficulty in reproducing it.    This too has a spiritual meaning.  If you do not hear the word of God clearly, if you do not attend to it, if you do not obey it, then you will not articulate it faithfully, and clearly.   Maybe we can make some sounds which resemble God’s word, but that’s different from clear, articulate speech.

How many Catholics can really speak the word of God with clarity and confidence?  Or, how many of us become tongue-tied when people ask us about our faith?  Have you ever been questioned by an energetic, evangelical protestant about the faith and found yourself tongue-tied? Often we are ineffective in speaking because we simply haven’t been listening as well as we should.

How does Jesus cure this deaf man?  First, he takes him away from the crowd.  Jesus does that often in Mark’s Gospel. 

Likewise, it is so important that we allow Jesus to lead us away from the things that distract us and hinder our spiritual growth; and when he does heal us, we have to be sure that we don’t go right back to those distractions.  Every day, we need have quiet moments away from the distractions where we say “Speak O Lord, your servant is listening.”  Every day to seek that place of silence, the Bible in your hands, to listen to the word of God clearly.

Jesus speaks a word to the deaf man, “Ephphatha” which means, be open. At the baptism after the noon Mass, the ritual instructs the priest to touch the ears and lips of the child and say: the Lord Jesus made deaf hear and the dumb speak, may he touch your ears to receive his Word and your mouth to declare his praise.  Jesus speaks the same word to each of us here today. Ephphatha be opened to the word God wishes to speak to you this week, that he may lead you and guide you to graces which eye has not seen and ear has not heard for his glory and the salvation of souls.