Ephphatha is not just a physical healing!

Hearing and speaking are God’s great gifts. Allen Peace in his book “Talk Language” and later on an interview in 2004 for CNN states that women can speak 20,000 to 24,000 words a day versus man’s top end of 7,000 to 10,000. Words range from swearing to lying, best to worst and life to death. The world has taught us how to talk in public and in private. Our daily greetings, our exchange of love, our worship, our struggles and happiness, our fears and anxieties are all translated by words, sponsored and hijacked sometimes blackmailed. Without words, we are hardly connected, unable to form societies. The apes got together to groom themselves and we go together to spread ideas that are good and bad to groom ourselves. As a result we have thousands of languages: the product of rumor and gossip!!!

Last year the movie ‘Doubt’ drew a lot of attention to people like me. What fascinated me in that movie was the story of the pastor in one of his homilies on gossip and rumor. The feathers that went out from our windows can’t be collected back! The disciple couldn’t wait to tell the master the rumor he had heard in the marketplace. ‘Wait a minute’, said the master. ‘What you plan to tell us, is it true?’ ‘I don’t think it is.’ ‘Is it useful? ‘No, it isn’t’ ‘Is it funny?’ ‘No’. “Then why should we be hearing it?”(Anthony De Mello, One minute wisdom).

Rumor is a piece of information or a story that has not been verified. Gossip is small talk often termed juicy, ie, it deals with subjects that are shocking or personal. Some people slander in order to purposely cause pain or damage someone’s reputation. Rumors could involve the threat of physical danger. Jokes and wild stories help them get shapes. Why do people do it? To feel superior, to feel like part of the group, for attention, for control or power, out of jealousy or revenge or sometimes even out of boredom. It can be a form of exclusion, can destroy trust and could lead us to make bad choices in life.

Church from the beginning had a high moral standard. The 8th Commandment: ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor’ brings along the aspect of loving our neighbor like the Good Samaritan. The CCC 2464 teaches us that “The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness to their God who is the truth and wills the truth. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant.” Also CCC 2479, “Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one's neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity, and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and reputation and to respect. Thus, detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity.”

The 1st reading talks about the great things that happen in the presence of the Lord. The 2nd reading reassures us that our language should be different from the language of the world. We have a different standard. The command of Jesus in the gospel ‘Ephphatha! Be opened is not just a physical healing. In the presence of Jesus we learn how to talk and listen like people of God. When we talk to and about others, this commandment echoes in us. We open our hearts and souls as well when we talk. We are Christians in words and deeds. We are not meant to be deaf or dumb. In the presence of God, we are recreated every time so that we speak what God tells us to speak. Do you feel that you have been healed? Or are you happy being dumb and deaf, spreading rumors about innocent people!