Aug
10

(23rd Sunday OT B) Ephphata: Faith and Witnessing

The story of the healing of the deaf-mute in Mark 7:31-37 is set in the Decapolis — the Hellenistic area on the east side of the Lake of Galilee. Mark has written it in such a way that readers of his gospel — converts from Judaism and paganism residing outside Palestine — may see an anticipation of what the Church is doing in their times. The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to these Marcan verses in explaining the place of natural signs and symbols in the Church’s celebration of the mysteries and in the sacraments. In CCC 1504, the Catechism relates the touch of the Jesus to the sacramental signs of the Church.

Relevant Articles

Guide to the Reading of the Text

1. After making the sentence flow, determine whether the story has the structure of a healing miracle. A healing miracle story has the following elements:

  1. Jesus is told about somebody sick or needs a healing
  2. Jesus acts
  3. One is healed
  4. Reaction to the healing

Is the story about a healing miracle?

2. Compare this story to the one found in 8:22-26. What elements are the same; which are different?

3. Some Additional Information

(a) Decapolis — The designation is Greek for “ten cities”. These are cities which — with the exception of Scythopolis (aka Beth-shean) and Damascus — are all found on the East of Lake Galilee. These cities have been grouped together under one designation because they show a culture different from Jewish Palestine. They constitute a Roman-Greek world within semitic Palestine. See the article above on “Decapolis”

(b) Jesus’ healing gestures. Joachim Gnilka informs us that the healing gestures of Jesus here are those of comtemporary thaumaturgists1. But Gnilka includes among these the action of looking up to heaven and the groaning2. Other exegetes would not agree, for whom the action of looking up to heaven and groaning is Jesus’ act of praying and being compassionate to the man being healed3. The use of saliva for healing was an fact known in ancient times4.

(c) Ephphatha. Aramaic for “Be opened!”. Thaumaturgists often used a magic word — a word that is unrecognized — to accompany the healing gestures. Here, there is no such thing as a magic word. Jesus opens the ears in relationship to revelation. Faith — writes Paul — comes from healing. The opening of the mouth follows that of the opening of the ears. The gesture became a part of baptism later on, when the bishop commanding the ears and the mouth to be opened so that one can have faith (ears) and be able to proclaim it (mouth).

(d) Reaction of the Crowd. The crowd reacts to the healing by saying: “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and [the] mute speak” (v. 37). The last part of this statement comes from Isaiah 35:5-6, a prophetic oracle about the vindication and restoration of Israel by the hand of the Lord. This Isaianic oracle is also the first reading for the 22nd Sunday.

Comparing the Readings

The reaction of the crowd at the end of the healing miracle in Mark 7:31-37 is an allussion to Isaiah 35:5 which forms part of an Isaianic oracle about the vindication of Israel. The Lord who is the Healer of Israel (Exodus 15:26; Hosea 11:4) will bring wholeness to the blind, the deaf, the mute and the lame ushering in new time of peace to His people. With the crowd’s reaction in Mark 7:37, we are told that something more than healing has occured through Jesus: the reign of God that Jesus proclaims has begun. The responsorial psalm taken from Psalm 146 celebrates the actions of the Lord in behalf of the weak and the poor.

James 2:1-5 can be made to relate to Psalm 146. The theme of this second reading however should be seen within the context of the ecclesia pressa where members of a persecuted Church would be tempted to wish for powerful and rich benefactors to lighten the burden of the community. James admonishes his community not to be partial towards the rich. He tells his community that the poor should be honored among them God Himself has chosen them to inherit His Kingdom. James 2:5 echoes the Beatitudes: "Blessed are you poor for yours is the kingdom of God."

Suggestions for the Lesson

1. One can get a hint from the Catechism of the Catholic Church here:

On the sacraments as powers emanating from the Body of Christ

1504 Often Jesus asks the sick to believe. He makes use of signs to heal: spittle and the laying on of hands, mud and washing. The sick try to touch him, “for power came forth from him and healed them all.” And so in the sacraments Christ continues to “touch” us in order to heal us.

On the signs and symbols of the liturgical celebration

1151 Signs taken up by Christ. In his preaching the Lord Jesus often makes use of the signs of creation to make known the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. He performs healings and illustrates his preaching with physical signs or symbolic gestures. He gives new meaning to the deeds and signs of the Old Covenant, above all to the Exodus and the Passover, for he himself is the meaning of all these signs.

Both of the above citations come from the section on the Celebration of the Mysteries of the Faith. The healing of the deaf and mute man can be used as an explanation of the role of signs and symbols in the re-presentation of the saving acts of the Lord.

2. One can also use the baptismal resonances in the story and use it to talk about the relationship of Faith and its profession in the public life. Our baptism obliges us also to profess our faith verbally.

Mark 7:31-37
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
31And again going out of the coasts of Tyre, he came by Sidon to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
32And they bring to him one deaf and dumb; and they besought him that he would lay his hand upon him.
33And taking him from the multitude apart, he put his fingers into his ears, and spitting, he touched his tongue:
34And looking up to heaven, he groaned, and said to him: Ephpheta, which is, Be thou opened.
35And immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke right.
36And he charged them that they should tell no man. But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal did they publish it.
37And so much the more did they wonder, saying: He hath done all things well; he hath made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
James 2:1-13
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
1My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with respect of persons.
2For if there shall come into your assembly a man having a golden ring, in fine apparel, and there shall come in also a poor man in mean attire,
3And you have respect to him that is clothed with the fine apparel, and shall say to him: Sit thou here well; but say to the poor man: Stand thou there, or sit under my footstool:
4Do you not judge within yourselves, and are become judges of unjust thoughts?
5Hearken, my dearest brethren: hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?
6But you have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you by might? and do not they draw you before the judgment seats?
7Do not they blaspheme the good name that is invoked upon you?
8If then you fulfill the royal law, according to the scriptures, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; you do well.
9But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, being reproved by the law as transgressors.
10And whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all.
11For he that said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, said also, Thou shalt not kill. Now if thou do not commit adultery, but shalt kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
12So speak ye, and so do, as being to be judged by the law of liberty.
13For judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy. And mercy exalteth itself above judgment.
Isaiah 35:5-6
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg LXX Hebrew
5Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free: for waters are broken out in the desert, and streams in the wilderness.
Mark 7:31-37
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
31And again going out of the coasts of Tyre, he came by Sidon to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
32And they bring to him one deaf and dumb; and they besought him that he would lay his hand upon him.
33And taking him from the multitude apart, he put his fingers into his ears, and spitting, he touched his tongue:
34And looking up to heaven, he groaned, and said to him: Ephpheta, which is, Be thou opened.
35And immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke right.
36And he charged them that they should tell no man. But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal did they publish it.
37And so much the more did they wonder, saying: He hath done all things well; he hath made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Isaiah 35:5
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg LXX Hebrew
5Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Exodus 15:26
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg LXX Hebrew
26Saying: If thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and do what is right before him, and obey his commandments, and keep all his precepts, none of the evils that I laid upon Egypt, will I bring upon thee: for I am the Lord thy healer.
Hosea 11:4
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg LXX Hebrew
4I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bands of love: and I will be to them as one that taketh off the yoke on their jaws: and I put his meat to him that he might eat.
Mark 7:37
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
37And so much the more did they wonder, saying: He hath done all things well; he hath made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
James 2:1-5
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
1My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with respect of persons.
2For if there shall come into your assembly a man having a golden ring, in fine apparel, and there shall come in also a poor man in mean attire,
3And you have respect to him that is clothed with the fine apparel, and shall say to him: Sit thou here well; but say to the poor man: Stand thou there, or sit under my footstool:
4Do you not judge within yourselves, and are become judges of unjust thoughts?
5Hearken, my dearest brethren: hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?
James 2:5
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
5Hearken, my dearest brethren: hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?
CCC 1504
¶1504 Often Jesus asks the sick to believe. He makes use of signs to heal: spittle and the laying on of hands, mud and washing. The sick try to touch him, "for power came forth from him and healed them all." And so in the sacraments Christ continues to "touch" us in order to heal us.

  1. See Poletti, Gianni (trans) Marco by Joachim Gnilka [Cittadelle Editrice:1987], p. 409↩
  2. Ibid. p. 410↩
  3. See Daniel Harrington. “The Gospel According to Mark in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 613″↩
  4. Poletti, op. cit.↩

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2 Comments on (23rd Sunday OT B) Ephphata: Faith and Witnessing

  1. mikoji123 says:
    September 7, 2009 at 10:19 am

    can you give a symbol for this gospel?

    Reply
  2. angfrayle says:
    September 7, 2009 at 6:03 pm

    What do you mean by symbol? An illustration? You may find one good drawing from this site: http://servicioskoinonia.org/cerezo. Ciao!

    Reply

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