B: 23rd Sun of OrdTime (9 Sept 2018) - DISCIPLINING OUR EARS AND MOUTHS - Mk 7:31-37

Our gospel today continues the theme of last Sunday’s reading when Jesus concluded that it is what is from inside that makes someone unclean, not what comes into the mouth (Mk 7:15). Thus, there are no such thing as unclean food but only unclean desires of the heart (vv. 20-23). Now, Jesus encountered in the region of the Decapolis a deaf person who had speech impediment (vv. 31-32). This case is not something unique as most deaf people have indeed difficulty in speaking. Having lost the sense of hearing, a deaf cannot manufacture the human speaking voice he/she would have heard; thus, speaking problem is naturally consequential.

What is rather unique is how he cured that person: “He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with spittle” (v. 33). He then healed him after uttering, “Be opened” (v. 34). We are puzzled by this gesture of Jesus which he did not do in his other healing activities in the gospels. Why would he do such a gross and unhygienic action? Some biblical commentators explain this detail as Jesus’ attempt to imitate the therapeutic method of local town physicians or quack doctors who would perform ceremonial rites in curing. Jesus was somewhat telling the crowd that he could do as much as they do. Still others interpret this as Jesus’ way of being personal to the deaf: he healed him in private, not being conscious if he would need to dirty himself in the process.

The concept of “finger of God” is something that is powerful. Remember that God is presented as creating man with his “finger” (check the painting of Michelangelo at the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling). In the OT, Yahweh worked wonders with his “finger” (Ex 8:19) and wrote the Ten Commandments with his very “finger” on the tablet stone handed over to Moses and the Israelites (Ex 31:18; Deut 9:10). In the NT, Jesus could expel demons from persons with the “finger of God” (Lk 11:20). He even drew on the ground with his “finger” during the judgment on the woman caught in adultery, which resulted to her salvation (Jn 8:6, 11). When Jesus touched the ear and mouth of the deaf, he was seemingly telling that the deaf is being created anew: Let no evil enter into your ears and come out of your mouth for you are a new creation of God!

Nowadays, we cannot physically see the “finger of God” at work. Nevertheless, there are two things that we can definitely control… we can regulate what enters into our ears and goes out of our mouths. Our media communication nowadays is polluted with filthy things: stories that divide people and nations, false news that instill fear and pandemonium, propaganda that promote misleading ideologies, and information that destroys basic human principles. If we allow them to enter into our ears without critical thinking, they become part of us, turning us into their very messengers in return. Subsequently, we open our mouths wantonly: we start gossiping against personalities, we spread rumors without validation, we advocate wrong measures indiscriminately, and we persecute dissidents with sarcastic remarks.

A fictional story is told about Socrates. One day somebody approached him, offering a piece of information about his good friend. Before the messenger could speak, Socrates interrupted him, saying: “I will only listen to your story if it can pass the three filter tests I will give you, namely, ‘Is it the truth?,’ ‘Is it good?’ and ‘Is it beneficial?’” The informant left the wise man without uttering a word for he knew deep within that his story is a negative rumor that would only destroy the reputation of Socrates’ friend (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aORCKNm_TxE).

Remember: As a new creation, we are now the carrier of the “finger of God” and we can make it work if we constantly discipline our ears and mouths. We simply have to put our own fingers into our ears to hear no evil, and to place our index fingers into our mouths to speak no evil. Shhhh!!! God’s creation is at work.

- Rex Fortes, CM