8 September 2024 -- 23rd Sunday “B”
Is 35:4-7a; Jas 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-37
Homily
The Gospels rarely show us Jesus outside the territory of Israel. In the passage immediately preceding the one we have just read, in Mark's Gospel, Jesus went to the region of Tyre, north of the Lake of Galilee. It was a border region, with a mixed population, mostly of pagan religion. It was there that he had healed the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman. And at the beginning of today's text, we see him leave Tyre, go through Sidon towards the Lake of Galilee and go straight to pagan territory, to the federation of ten cities called the Decapolis.
What did Jesus do in pagan, i.e. non-Jewish, lands? He didn't preach. He did not try to convert the inhabitants to Judaism. He doesn't even talk to them about the Kingdom, as he does to the Jews. Rather, he brings about the Kingdom. He simply heals them. And this story is an introduction to the story of the second multiplication of the loaves.
This story of healing, which is unique to Mark, is full of details that are heavy with symbolism. The sick man is said to have been deaf and dumb. Now, the Greek adjective (mogilalon) that we translate here as mute, meaning rather someone who speaks with difficulty, does not exist in classical Greek and is only found once, here, in the NT and once in the OT, precisely in the prophecy of Isaiah that we had as our first reading. Mark's text therefore refers explicitly to Isaiah's prophecy: The eyes of the blind will be opened, the deaf will hear and the mouth of those who have difficulty speaking will shout for joy.
Isaiah is the prophet of consolation. The people were still crushed by the pain of the Babylonian exile, and needed a message of encouragement and hope, which Isaiah gave them. Isaiah evokes the memory of the land of Palestine that awaits them after the exile: a fertile and spacious land, with its natural wealth, its springs and torrents, a veritable earthly paradise. It is in this same land that Jesus finds himself in Mark's account.
A deaf-mute was brought to him. In Mark's mind, this could well represent the disciples who, in the previous text (= last Sunday's Gospel), had not understood Jesus‘ teaching (about what comes from the heart of man), and so could not yet convey Jesus’ message correctly. This sick man is brought to Jesus; he does not come of his own accord, and it is not said who brings him. They beg Jesus (they don't simply ‘ask’ him; they ‘beg’ him) - not to heal him, but to lay hands on him, and therefore to transmit his vital force.
Jesus raises his eyes to heaven, in a gesture of prayer to his Father, sighing - which underlines the importance of the moment, and probably expresses his sadness at the slowness of his disciples to understand. After touching the sick man's ears and tongue, he said to him: ‘ Open up ’. The word ‘ effata ’ is an Aramaic word, an imperative in the second person singular. Jesus does not say to the ears and tongue ‘ open up ’ (in a plural form). He says to the sick person, to the person: ‘ open up ’ )in the singular form). When people open themselves to the grace and person of Jesus, they can speak and hear. They are freed from their obstacles.
Let's look again at the context in which Jesus performed this miracle. It was one of the rare occasions when He entered Gentile territory. He did not speak to these non-Jews in the language of the prophets of Israel. He will obviously not try to turn them into Jews. He will evangelise them -- not by bringing them intellectual content, by talking to them about salvation, but simply by bringing salvation into their midst, by bringing salvation to them in the form of healing.
In some countries today, it is not possible to proclaim the Gospel in words, since what is called ‘proselytism’ is forbidden. In Algeria, for example. In these countries, small communities of Christians evangelise simply by living charity among the people. Just as our brothers at Tibhirine did, with such obvious and surprising results.
Even our European societies, which from a material point of view are fertile lands like the Decapolis of Jesus' time, have largely lost touch with the oral expressions of the Christian message. Some of us are undoubtedly called to preach this message in words. But this is not possible everywhere or always. What is always possible, for all of us and at all times, is to live the kingdom, to embody Christian love in gestures of charity and communion like those of Jesus touching the ears of the deaf man with his fingers and touching his tongue with his own saliva.
The Reign of God is in actions before it is in words.
Armand VEILLEUX