The Ephphatha of Our Hearts

Sunday Gospel Reflection
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 7:31-37 | September 5, 2021

The Ephphatha of Our Hearts
Carlo S. Dureza

Many years back in the mid-2000s, a single question was tossed to the remaining 5 finalists of the Ms. Universe Pageant to determine who would finally become the winner.

The uniform question was: “Aside from the sense of sight, what other basic human sense do you think would be most important and why?” The lone finalist from Asia answered, “the sense of hearing, because what we say pierces our heart and our words have the power to create an impact on others.”

That contestant ended up as first runner-up. Good enough for a simple but profound answer that reverberated strongly. Her point was that our hearing and our speech are closely related to what these could do.

In today’s gospel, Jesus heals a deaf-mute. He opens the man’s defective ears and loosens his tongue so he could hear and speak. For what? Aside of course from being faithful to His mission of bringing wholeness and salvation to people afflicted with maladies, Jesus would like to make us instruments of the coming of the Kingdom.

He would like to use our ears to listen to Him that our hearts be seized with His words and our tongue to speak in praise of Him in proclaiming His Kingdom. The healing of the deaf-mute in the gospel clearly illustrates God’s desire for us to be opened in Jesus.

In this time of burden and struggle due to the pandemic, let us provide each other with moral support and strength by imparting words of encouragement among ourselves. These words are likewise inspired by what Jesus said to us.

May we have our “Ephphatha experience” by opening not only the ears but also the hearts of others to God’s loving presence through our words. “Ephphatha” of our hearts is having a keen listening ear to God and to others. Only then will we be able to do acts of love.

Happy Sunday! God bless!!
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Photo by Cyruz Gomez on Unsplash

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