The Gospel. St. Mark vii. 31.

Jesus, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. 

Have you ever thought of how important our senses are?  Beyond the usual ones we think about are also those subtle senses like sense of balance and senses of heat and cold.  How much we depend on them to warn us—like our sense of sight at a crosswalk; to bring us pleasure—like our senses of taste and smell at the dinner table; or to bring us awareness—like our sense of touch when we reach out in a dark room.  Especially we depend on our hearing and seeing in order to achieve a sense of understanding.  

What is seen and heard--what is received by us from others--is there in our minds and hearts to understand.  There is something communicated, but what it truly means requires something more from us—our understanding. 

Striving to understand should be a very spiritual activity.  It speaks to who we are for we are those to whom God has chosen to reveal Himself.   We are the people God wants to come to Him. 

 In the Gospel for today, “they bring unto [Jesus] one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech”.  They remember Isaiah’s words, “the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.”  The people are asking that Jesus use His healing touch—a special sense indeed!  In response, Jesus puts His fingers into his ears, spits upon the ground, and touches his tongue.  But, there is more, there is Jesus’ “looking up to heaven”, his sighing and his saying unto him “Ephphatha, be opened”.  The sigh is a true sign of compassion.  “And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.”

 As with all the healing miracles of the Gospels, this miracle is telling us about the restoring of our true nature.  God doesn’t want any of us to be deformed; He wants us to be perfect in our humanity.  He also wants for us to be completely prepared to receive the truth of God.  When we, like this man’s ears, are truly open, we are receptive and willing to be what God wants us to be.

Ephphatha!  We need to be open in two ways:  open to receive and open to give.  We are prepared to receive God’s will for us, and we are open to give to others out of all the riches we have received from Him.  “Open your hearts”, St. Paul tells the Corinthians (2 Cor.7.2). 

Ephphatha!  We are thus open to give of ourselves without fear.  Then, we are truly acting in the image of the One who opened His heart totally and completely to us in the sacrifice of the Cross.

In this healing miracle, Christ looks up to heaven.  You will recall that, on the Cross, too, Christ looks up to heaven.  His last words are to commend everything in Himself into the hands of the Father.  “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.”  We need to realize this basic connection between the healing miracles of Christ and His death and resurrection. 

We are opened to the truth of God so that we can enter into that Portal of Truth and offer our prayers and praises, which moves us to love one another.  Of such is the Church; of such is our lives. The Gospel underlines the point: they “were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well; He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak”.  

Ephphatha!  To be opened then means to give.  He would have us open ourselves to Him and to one another.  In these days of blessed sustainment for Good Shepherd, we need to be open to the things of God.  Only then shall we behold His glory.  Ephphatha—Be Opened!

The Decalogue.

God spake these words, and said:

I am the LORD thy God; Thou shalt have none other gods but me.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them;

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not take the Name of the LORD thy God in vain;

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

 Honour thy father and thy mother;

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt do no murder.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not steal.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not covet

Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee.

On the Anniversary of the Passing of Patriarch George Forde

May He Who rose from the dead, Christ our True God, by the prayers of His Most-pure Mother, of the holy, glorious and all praised Apostles, of our venerable and God bearing Fathers and of all the Saints, establish the soul of His servant Patriarch George Forde, who has been taken from us, in the mansions of the righteous; give him rest in the bosom of Abraham, and number him with the Venerable Ones; and have mercy in us, as He is good and the Lover of Mankind. (The Book of Needs, p. 152)

Labor Day

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who declarest thy glory and showest forth thy handiwork in the heavens and in the earth; Deliver us, we beseech thee, in our several callings, from the service of mammon, that we may do the work which thou givest us to do, in truth, in beauty, and in righteousness, with singleness of heart as thy servants, and to the benefit of our fellows; for the sake of him who came among us as one that serveth, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen