What is striking about today's Gospel is the trouble Jesus takes to cure the man brought to him, who was deaf and had trouble speaking. "He, drawing him away from the crowd, alone, put his fingers in his ears and with the saliva touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him: Effetá (that is, 'open up')." The man was healed and could hear and speak freely. Why did Jesus do all this? It was not his usual practice. He usually healed on the spot, simply with a word.
One possibility is that the man's physical state expressed a spiritual state: the lack of sincerity, the unwillingness to make himself known. There are people who go through life dodging the truth. They don't want to hear it or say it. Sincerity is openness to the truth.
Often, people dodge the truth by seeking anonymity, getting lost in various ways: in the crowd, at a party, in the workAnything rather than face themselves, their conscience, God. And here Jesus takes the man apart, precisely away from the crowd. We need to talk to Jesus alone, to be sincere with him, to let him tell us what we need to hear, without avoiding or denying it. Jesus puts his fingers in the man's ear, as if he had to try harder to cure his deafness. As if God had to "try harder" to speak to those who do not want to listen to him.
Then comes the next phase of the miracle: Jesus touched his tongue with his saliva. This man was not completely mute. In the New Testament we find other people possessed by a "mute demon". They cannot say a word. That is the worst condition: people who do not speak, who do not ask for help. But this man was not so bad. He just had a speech impediment. Spiritually speaking there are people who say something about the problem, but not all of it, a part, but not the whole.
Then we learn: "looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him: Ephphethah (that is, 'open up')". This sigh could express God's sorrow at human insincerity. He is saddened by our resistance to his grace. It is God's sigh for those whom he wanted to help but who rejected him.
All this teaches us the importance of being sincere in those areas where God wants to help us: confession, spiritual guidance, with our own parents, teachers and guides, and also, when necessary, with medical specialists who have the necessary expertise to help us.
Homily on the readings of the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Priest Luis Herrera Campo offers his nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.
