Ephphatha - A Reflection on Mk 7:34

Then He looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” – that is, “Be opened.” Mk 7:34

In this verse, we see the Lord Jesus linking heaven and earth as He interceded to His Father on behalf of the deaf and mute man.

“Then He looked up to heaven and groaned” describes the Lord communing in prayer with His Father in heaven. In the New Testament, the verb to “groan” almost always infers an urgent prayer or heaven-ward cry coming from our deepest core. For example: “But the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings” Rom 8:26. The people begged Jesus to lay His hand on the deaf and mute man. They did not have to. The Lord is united in will with His Father. His mission is to give us life, an abundant life. His groaning? Our compassionate Lord felt the man's suffering; He may have been urgently commanding heaven to open its floodgates, so that the Father’s mercy and healing grace may be poured out on the man.

He spoke to the man (and to us): “Be opened”. Why did the Lord speak that command and not merely, “Speak and hear”? The Lord was not only speaking to the physical impairment in the man. The ear is clogged and can’t hear. The tongue is cleaved to the roof of the mouth and can’t speak. He was also speaking to his (and our) spiritual impairment.

Why do we not hear the word of God nor speak it? What deafens our ears that we can’t hear His voice? Our desire for or anxieties about worldly goods? Our self-centered motivations in ministry? Our hyperactivity and lack of solitude? What has kept us from proclaiming His gospel to others, but rather, caused us to speak lies, boasts, hurtful or divisive words? “From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks” Mt 12:34. What fills our heart and closes it to God’s grace?

That man was deaf, but he felt the Lord's finger in his ears; he was mute, but he felt and tasted the Lord's touch of his tongue. He felt the Lord's love, savored the Lord's attention, saw the Lord's confident look of authority. He did not have to hear the Lord’s command, “be opened”. The Lord's command was relayed to his mind and heart by his functioning senses. And he obeyed. He opened his heart, his spirit to the Lord. Because of his obedience, he was healed.

The man prefigured all of us who opened ourselves to the good news of Christ, to the Lord Himself. He became Bukas-Loob sa Diyos, open in spirit to God. Our community name is thus our response to the Lord’s command. When we became part of this community, which is in turn a part of His Church, we are in fact declaring our obedience to His command, "ephphatha!" Yes, Lord, our spirit is open to You and to Your will, Lord!

And if our spirit is open to the Lord, it is also open to every human being, regardless of who he is and what is his stature in life. Individually and as a community, we will be open in hospitality and friendship and love and compassion. We will be open in sharing with others the abundant grace we’ve received from God through the ministry He has entrusted to us. God will make His home in the heart of the community. And God will pour out His grace through the open floodgates of our heart.

Our being open in spirit to God is our invitation to Him and to His people to commune with us. Every day becomes a moment of the Spirit’s visitation, to teach us about Jesus and to guide us to a deeper communion with Him. The Spirit clears our senses so that we see, hear, feel, taste Jesus more distinctly, as He reveals Himself to us in prayer, in Scripture, in the sacraments, in other people, in our sufferings and joys. The more we know Jesus, the more we grow in love with Him. To do His will becomes our greatest desire.