Mark
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Mark 7
31.	And 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.	Et iterum exiens de finibus Tyri, venit per Sidonem ad mare Galilææ inter medios fines Decapoleos.	και παλιν εξελθων εκ των οριων τυρου και σιδωνος ηλθεν προς την θαλασσαν της γαλιλαιας ανα μεσον των οριων δεκαπολεως
32.	And they bring to him one deaf and dumb; and they besought him that he would lay his hand upon him.	Et adducunt ei surdum, et mutum, et deprecabantur eum, ut imponat illi manum.	και φερουσιν αυτω κωφον μογγιλαλον και παρακαλουσιν αυτον ινα επιθη αυτω την χειρα
33.	And taking him from the multitude apart, he put his fingers into his ears, and spitting, he touched his tongue:	Et apprehendens eum de turba seorsum, misit digitos suos in auriculas ejus : et exspuens, tetigit linguam ejus :	και απολαβομενος αυτον απο του οχλου κατ ιδιαν εβαλεν τους δακτυλους αυτου εις τα ωτα αυτου και πτυσας ηψατο της γλωσσης αυτου
34.	And looking up to heaven, he groaned, and said to him: Ephpheta, which is, Be thou opened.	et suscipiens in cælum, ingemuit, et ait illi : Ephphetha, quod est, Adaperire.	και αναβλεψας εις τον ουρανον εστεναξεν και λεγει αυτω εφφαθα ο εστιν διανοιχθητι
35.	And immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke right.	Et statim apertæ sunt aures ejus, et solutum est vinculum linguæ ejus, et loquebatur recte.	και ευθεως διηνοιχθησαν αυτου αι ακοαι και ελυθη ο δεσμος της γλωσσης αυτου και ελαλει ορθως
36.	And 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.	Et præcepit illis ne cui dicerent. Quanto autem eis præcipiebat, tanto magis plus prædicabant :	και διεστειλατο αυτοις ινα μηδενι ειπωσιν οσον δε αυτος αυτοις διεστελλετο μαλλον περισσοτερον εκηρυσσον
37.	And 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.	et eo amplius admirabantur, dicentes : Bene omnia fecit : et surdos fecit audire, et mutos loqui.	και υπερπερισσως εξεπλησσοντο λεγοντες καλως παντα πεποιηκεν και τους κωφους ποιει ακουειν και τους αλαλους λαλειν

31. And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
32. 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.
33. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
34. And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
35. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plain.
36. 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;
37. And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He has done all things well: he makes both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

THEOPHYL. The Lord did, not wish to stay in the parts of the Gentiles, lest He should give the Jews occasion to say, that they esteemed Him a transgressor of the law, because He held communion with the Gentiles, and therefore He immediately returns; wherefore it is said, And again departing from the coasts of Tyre, he came through Sidon, to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis.

BEDE; Decapolis is a region of ten cities, across the Jordan, to the east, over against Galilee . When therefore it is said that the Lord came to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis, it does not mean that He entered the confines of Decapolis themselves; for He is not said to have crossed the sea, but rather to have come to the borders of the sea, and to have reached quite up to the place, which was opposite to the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, which were situated at a distance across the sea.

It goes on, And they bring him one that was deaf and dumb, and they besought him to lay hands upon him.

THEOPHYL. Which is rightly placed after the deliverance of one possessed with a devil, for such an instance of suffering came from the devil. There follows, And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears.

PSEUD-CHRYS. He takes the deaf and dumb man who was brought to Him apart from the crowd, that He might not do His divine miracles openly; teaching us to cast away vain glory and swelling of heart, for no one can work miracles as he can, who loves humility and is lowly in his conduct. But He puts His fingers into his ears, when He might have cured him with a word, to show that His body, being united to Deity, was consecrated by Divine virtue, with all that He did. For since on account of the transgression of Adam, human nature had incurred much suffering and hurt in its members and senses, Christ coming into the world showed the perfection of human nature in Himself, and on this account opened ears with His fingers, and gave the power of speech by His spittle. Wherefore it goes on, And spit, and touched his tongue.

THEOPHYL. That He might show that all the members of His sacred body are divine and holy, even the spittle which loosed the string of the tongue. For the spittle is only the superfluous moisture of the body, but in the Lord all things are divine. It goes on, And looking up to haven, he groaned, and said to him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

BEDE; He looked up to heaven, that He might teach us that thence is to be procured speech for the dumb, hearing for the deaf, health for all who are sick. And He sighed, not that it was necessary for Him to beg any thing from His Father with groaning, for He, together with the Father, gives all things to them who ask, but that He might give us an example of sighing, when for our own errors and those of our neighbors, we invoke the guardianship of the Divine mercy.

PSEUD-CHRYS. He at the same time also groaned, as taking our cause upon Himself, and pitying human nature, seeing the misery into which it had fallen.

BEDE; But that which He says, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened, belongs properly to the ears, for the ears are to be opened for hearing, but the tongue to be loosed from the bonds of its impediment, that it may be able to speak.

Wherefore it goes on, And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plain. Where each nature of one and the same Christ is manifestly distinct, looking up indeed, into Heaven as man, praying unto God, He groaned, but presently with one word, as being strong in the Divine Majesty, He healed.

It goes on, And be charged them that they should tell to man.

PSEUD-CHRYS. By which He has taught us not to boast in our powers, but in the cross and humiliation. He also bade them conceal the miracle, lest He should excite the Jews by envy to kill Him before the time.

PSEUDO-JEROME; A city, however, placed on a hill cannot be hid, and lowliness always comes before glory . Wherefore it goes on, But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it.

THEOPHYL. By this we are taught , when we confer benefits on any, by no means to seek for applause and praise; but when we have received benefits, to proclaim and praise our benefactors, even though they be unwilling.

AUG. If however He, as one Who knew the present and the future wills of men, knew that they would proclaim Him the more in proportion as He forbade them, why did He give them this command? If it were not that He wished to prove to men who are idle, how much more joyfully, with how such greater obedience, they whom He commands to proclaim Him should preach, when they who were forbidden could not hold their peace.

GLOSS. From the preaching however of those who were healed by Christ, the wonder of the multitude, and their praise of the benefits of Christ, increased. Wherefore it goes on, And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He has done all things well; he makes the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

PSEUDO-JEROME; Mystically, Tyre is interpreted narrowness, and signifies Judea, to which the Lord said, "For the bed is grown too narrow," and from which he turns himself to the Gentiles. Sidon means' hunting,' for our race is like an untamed beast, and 'sea,' which means a wavering inconstancy. Again, the Savior comes to save the Gentiles in the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, which may be interpreted, as the commands of the Decalogue. Further, the human race throughout its many members is reckoned as one man, eaten up by varying pestilence, in the first created man; it is blinded, that is, its eye is evil; it becomes deaf, when it listens to, and dumb when it speaks, evil. And they prayed Him to lay His hand upon him, because many just men, and patriarchs, wished and longed for the time when the Lord should come in the flesh.

BEDE; Or he is deaf and dumb who neither has ears to hear the words of God, nor opens his mouth to speak them, and such must be presented to the Lord for healing, by men who have already learned to hear and speak the divine oracles.

PSEUDO-JEROME; Further, he who obtain healing is always drawn aside from turbulent thoughts, disorderly actions, and incoherent speeches. And the fingers which are put into the ears are the words and the gifts of the Holy Ghost, whom it is said, This is the finger of God. The spittle is heavenly wisdom, which loosens the sealed lips of the human race, so that it can say, I believe in God, the Father Almighty and the rest of the Creed. And looking up to heaven, he groaned, that is, He taught us to groan, and to raise up the treasures of our hearts to the heavens; because by the groaning of hearty compunction, the silly joy of the flesh is purged away. But the ears are opened to hymns, and songs, and psalms; and He looses the tongue, that it may pour forth the good word, which neither threats nor stripes can restrain.

Catena Aurea Mark 7

Christ healing a deaf-mute

The Convent of Saint John
ca. 800
Müstair village, Switzerland

Information: St. Catherine de Ricci

Feast Day: February 13

Born: 23 April 1522 at Florence, Italy

Died: 2 February 1590 at Prato, Italy

Canonized: 29 June 1746 by Pope Benedict XIV

Interactive Saints for Kids

St. Catherine of Ricci

Feast Day: February 13
Born:1522 :: Died:1590

Alexandrina was born into the Ricci family of Florence, Italy. Here mother died when she was a baby. Although she was raised by her Godmother she loved Our Lady and considered her as her true mother.

As a child she could talk with her guardian Angel and her Angel taught her how to pray the Rosary. When she was six she entered the convent school of Montecelli where her aunt was the Abbess.

Then when she was thirteen, Alexandrina joined the Dominican order as a nun and she chose the name Catherine.

Even at that young age, Sister Catherine had a deep love for the passion of Jesus Christ. She used to think about Our Lord's sufferings often. Jesus gave her the great honor of receiving in her own body the marks of his wounds.

For twelve years every week from Thursday afternoon until Friday afternoon she would suffer the five wounds of Jesus. She was happy to accept all the pains of these wounds.

Catherine also felt very sorry for the poor souls suffering in purgatory. She realized how they longed to be with God in heaven. She realized, too, that this time in purgatory seemed to drag on endlessly.

St. Catherine prayed and did penance for them. Once God let her know that a certain man was in purgatory. So great was her love that she offered to suffer for him. God listened to her prayer and she suffered greatly for forty days.

Thousands of people came to see her and ask for her prayers including three future popes. After a long, painful illness, St. Catherine died on February 2, 1590, at the age of sixty-eight.

CATHOLIC ALMANAC

Friday, February 13

Liturgical Color: Green

Today the Church honors Blessed
Jordon of Saxony. He was a gifted
preacher and writer who joined the Order
of Preachers under St. Dominic in 1220.
An especially powerful sermon of his
convinced St. Albert the Great to join
the order.

Explanation of the Parable of the Weeds

Today's Reading: Matthew 13:34-43

34 All this Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed he said nothing to them without a parable. 35 This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet:

"I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world."

36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." 37 He answered, "He who sows the good seed is the Son of man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; the weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. 41 The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Today's Commentary:

WORD STUDY: Parables (Mt 13:3)

Parabole (Gk.): A spoken or literary "comparison" between two things for illustration. The word is found 48 times in the Synoptic Gospels for short stories that use familiar images and word pictures to illustrate a truth or challenge a common outlook on life and religion. The term is found also in the Greek OT, where it frequently translates the Hebrew word mashal, a term for literary forms such as proverbs (1 Sam 10:12; 1 Kings 4:32), riddles (Ps 49:4; Sir 47:15), and allegories (Ezek 17:2; 24:3).

Jesus uses parables in the NT for two purposes: to reveal and to conceal divine mysteries.

(1) Parables invite the humble to reach behind the images and lay hold of God's truth (Mt 11:25; Mk 4:33). Parables sketch out earthly scenarios that reveal heavenly mysteries.

(2) Conversely, they obstruct the proud and conceal divine mysteries from the unworthy. Parables thus have a second, albeit negative, function and are spoken as judgments on the faithless (cf. Is 6:9-10). In Matthew, Jesus shifts from straightforward teaching (chaps. 5-7) to parables (chap. 13) immediately following his rejection by the Pharisees (12:14). Like the OT prophets Jotham (Judg 9:7-15) and Nathan (2 Sam 12:1-6), Jesus speaks parables for the benefit of the faithful and the judgment of unbelievers.

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for:February 13, 2015
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: Keep your family safe, O Lord, with unfailing care, that, relying solely on the hope of heavenly grace, they may be defended always by your protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

o Scalloped Ham and Potatoes

ACTIVITIES

o Habits of Prayer in the Family

PRAYERS

o The Canticle of the Passion

LIBRARY

o A Parent's Blueprint for Making Youth Holy | Rev. Daniel Egan S.A.

o Women as Guardians of Purity | Alice von Hildebrand

· Ordinary Time: February 13th

· Friday of the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time

Old Calendar: St. Catherine de Ricci, virgin (Hist)

Historically today is the feast of St. Catherine de Ricci a native of Florence, Italy, who became a Dominican tertiary in 1535 and eventually filled the offices of novice-mistress and prioress. She was famous for her ecstasies in which she beheld and enacted the scenes of our Lord's passion. It is said that she met St. Philip Neri, in a vision who was still alive in Rome. Three future popes were among the thousands who flocked to her convent to ask her prayers.

St. Catherine de Ricci
The early testimony to St. Catherine's sanctity is quite striking. Her biography was written by F. Seraphin Razzi, a Dominican friar, who knew her, and who was fifty-eight years old when she died. The nuns of her monastery gave an ample testimony that this account was conformable partly to what they knew of her, and partly to manuscript memorials left by her confessor and others concerning her. Printed in Lucca in 1594, it is therefore considered highly reliable. Her life was again compiled by F. Philip Guidi, confessor to the saint and to the Duchess of Urbino, and printed at Florence in 1622. Fathers Michael Pio and John Lopez, of the same order, have given abstracts of her life. Since St. Catherine died in 1589, we can see how quickly the story of her life was told.

The Ricci are an ancient family, which still subsists in a flourishing condition in Tuscany. Peter de Ricci, the father of our saint, was married to Catherine Bonza, a lady of suitable birth. The saint was born at Florence in 1522, and called at her baptism Alexandrina, but she took the name of Catherine at her religious profession. Having lost her mother in her infancy, she was formed to virtue by a very pious godmother, and whenever she was missing she was always to be found on her knees in some secret part of the house.

When she was between six and seven years old, her father placed her in the Convent of Monticelli, near the gates of Florence, where her aunt, Louisa de Ricci, was a nun. This place was to her a paradise: at a distance from the noise and tumult of the world, she served God without impediment or distraction

After some years her father took her home. She continued her usual exercises in the world as much as she was able; but the interruptions and dissipation, inseparable from her station, gave her so much uneasiness that, with the consent of her father, which she obtained, though with great difficulty, in the year 1535, the fourteenth of her age, she received the religious veil in the convent of Dominicanesses at Prat, in Tuscany, to which her uncle, F. Timothy de Ricci, was director.

God, in the merciful design to make her the spouse of his crucified Son, and to imprint in her soul dispositions conformable to His, was pleased to exercise her patience by rigorous trials. For two years she suffered inexpressible pains under a complication of violent distempers, which remedies themselves served only to increase. These sufferings she sanctified by the interior dispositions with which she bore them, and which she nourished principally by assiduous meditation on the passion of Christ, in which she found an incredible relish and a solid comfort and joy. After the recovery of her health, which seemed miraculous, she studied more perfectly to die to her senses, and to advance in a penitential life and spirit, in which God had begun to conduct her, by practicing the greatest austerities which were compatible with the obedience she had professed; she fasted two or three days a week on bread and water, and sometimes passed the whole day without taking any nourishment, and chastised her body with disciplines and a sharp iron chain which she wore next her skin.

Her obedience, humility, and meekness were still more admirable than her spirit of penance. The least shadow of distinction or commendation gave her inexpressible uneasiness and confusion, and she would have rejoiced to be able to lie hid in the center of the earth, in order to be entirely unknown to and blotted out of the hearts of all mankind, such were the sentiments of annihilation and contempt of herself in which she constantly lived. It was by profound humility and perfect interior self-denial that she learned to vanquish in her heart the sentiments or life of the first Adam—that is, of corruption, sin, and inordinate self-love. But this victory over herself, and purgation of her affections, was completed by a perfect spirit of prayer; for by the union of her soul with God, and the establishment of the absolute reign of his love in her heart, she was dead to and disengaged from all earthly things. And in one act of sublime prayer she advanced more than by a hundred exterior practices in the purity and ardor of her desire to do constantly what was most agreeable to God, to lose no occasion of practicing every heroic virtue, and of vigorously resisting all that was evil. Prayer, holy meditation, and contemplation were the means by which God imprinted in her soul sublime ideas of his heavenly truths, the strongest and most tender sentiments of all virtues, and the most burning desire to give all to God, with an incredible relish and affection for suffering contempt and poverty for Christ. What she chiefly labored to obtain, by meditating on his life and sufferings, and what she most earnestly asked of him, was that he would be pleased, in his mercy, to purge her affections of all poison of the inordinate love of creatures, and engrave in her his most holy and divine image, both exterior and interior–that is to say, both in her conversation and her affections, that so she might be animated, and might think, speak, and act by his most Holy Spirit.

The saint was chosen, very young, first, mistress of the novices, then sub-prioress, and, in the twenty-fifth year of her age, was appointed perpetual prioress. The reputation of her extraordinary sanctity and prudence drew her many visits from a great number of bishops, princes, and cardinals-among others, of Cervini, Alexander of Medicis, and Aldobrandini, who all three were afterwards raised to St. Peter's chair, under the names of Marcellus II, Clement VIII, and Leo XI.

Something like what St. Austin relates of St. John of Egypt happened to St. Philip Neri and St. Catherine of Ricci. For having some time entertained together a commerce of letters, to satisfy their mutual desire of seeing each other, whilst he was detained at Rome she appeared to him in a vision, and they conversed together a considerable time, each doubtless being in a rapture. This St. Philip Neri, though most circumspect in giving credit to or in publishing visions, declared, saying that Catherine de Ricci, whilst living, had appeared to him in vision, as his disciple Galloni assures us in his life.¹ And the continuators of Bollandus inform us that this was confirmed by the oaths of five witnesses.² Bacci, in his life of St. Philip, mentions the same thing, and Pope Gregory XV, in his bull for the canonization of St. Philip Neri, affirms that whilst this saint lived at Rome he conversed a considerable time with Catherine of Ricci, a nun, who was then at Prat, in Tuscany.³

Most wonderful were the raptures of St. Catherine in meditating on the passion of Christ, which was her daily exercise, but to which she totally devoted herself every week from Thursday noon to three o'clock in the afternoon on Friday. After a long illness she passed from this mortal life to everlasting bliss and the possession of the object of all her desires, on the feast of the Purification of our Lady, on the 2nd of February, in 1589, the sixty-seventh year of her age. The ceremony of her beatification was performed by Clement XII in 1732, and that of her canonization by Benedict XIV in 1746. Her festival is deferred to the 13th of February.

1 Gallon. apud Contin Bolland. Acta Sanctorum, Maii, t. 6, p. 503, col. 2, n. 146.

2 Ibid. p. 504, col. 2.

3 In Bullar. Cherubini, t. 4, p. 8.

— Excerpted from Vol. II of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler, the 1864 edition published by D. & J. Sadlier, & Company

Patron: Against illness; sick people

Things to Do:

Read St. Catherine de Ricci, V., O.S.D. - EWTN.com and the full text of her letters.

The Word Among Us

Meditation: Mark 7:31-37

5th Week in Ordinary Time

He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. (Mark 7:37)

Have you ever watched a baby learning to talk? She looks intently at her parent’s mouth that forms words. She attempts to repeat sounds. Before long, she is forming words that name people and things important in her world.

But sometimes this process seems to drag. The baby doesn’t babble but may just groan. She doesn’t look in the direction of a startling sound. Lullabies don’t seem to calm her.

When parents notice such difficulties, they try to find out if the baby has a hearing problem. Quite often, a medical intervention like cochlear implants or hearing aids, coupled with speech therapy, can dramatically improve the child’s ability to speak. It makes sense, doesn’t it? The more you can hear, the better you can speak.

Isn’t this what happened to the man in today’s Gospel reading? He was deaf, and that deafness led to a speech impediment. So as soon as Jesus opened the man’s ears, the speech impediment vanished, and the man was able to speak clearly.

Perhaps you’ve been concerned about a “speech impediment” of your own. Maybe a friend is expressing prejudices against the Church that you know to be untrue, but you’re afraid to speak up. Or maybe you have strong political or moral convictions but can’t articulate them in a convincing way.

Instead of getting frustrated trying to figure out what to say, take a step back, and work on your listening skills. Before launching into your convictions or defense of the Church, first listen to what the other person is trying to say. Listen, also, for what may be behind that person’s objections. Is he or she voicing a heartfelt concern about a serious problem? Maybe it’s an issue that you care about as well, but you disagree on the best way to solve it.

If you can listen and find common ground, you may find yourself growing in understanding, even as you suggest alternatives. “What might happen if … .That reminds me of a time when I …” Comments like these tend to promote dialogue rather than close it down. It may require more patience, but the more we listen prayerfully, the better we will be able to speak. The better we will be able to love.

“Jesus, open my ears so that I can speak with your love.”

Genesis 3:1-8
Psalm 32:1-2, 5-7

Marriage=One Man and One Woman 'Til Death Do Us Part

Daily Marriage Tip for February 13, 2015:

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Have you thought about how you can go out of your way to show your spouse that you love them? Pray to St. Valentine for some inspiration!

Regnum Chrisit

Immutable

U. S. A. | SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

February 13, 2015. Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Mark 7:31-37

Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I truly sense your love in my heart. I hope in you, for you have won my confidence by revealing your sacrificial love to me. I love you, Lord, and I wish to be a witness of your love to all.

Petition: Lord, open my heart to your love so I may be a convincing witness to the world that your love exists.

1. Who Would I Be if I Did Not Have the Faith? We can be so familiar with and immersed in our Catholic heritage that we take for granted the truths we have received from our Catholic Church, much like most of us take for granted our ability to hear or speak. Today’s Gospel gives us an opportunity to contemplate a man who from birth did not enjoy either of these common faculties. There are people who cannot embrace Jesus’ revelation not because it isn’t given, but because they are not prepared to receive it. Let us rejoice in the grace we have received and honor it with our fidelity. What type of person would I be (or soon become) if I didn’t have the gift of faith to support, guide or mold my values?

2. Christ Is the Revelation of the Father and His Love: Christ revealed himself to this man, and his power gave him hearing and good speech. “Christ … by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear”(Gaudium et Spes, no. 22).Inasmuch as we are deaf to divine revelation we are like this man. Unable to speak the message of the meaning of our lives, unable to give ourselves to God and others, life just passes us by. But if God touches our ears and tongue, if he cures and empowers us with his grace, our lives take on a whole new direction and significance. God does touch our ears and tongue, but we must embrace his grace and purpose in our lives.

3. We Are Witnesses to the World that Love Exists: Our Lord restored to this man the health of his ears and tongue. Christ thus revealed to him his real identity: “He, who is ‘the image of the invisible God’ (Colossians 1:15), is himself the perfect man” (Redemptor Hominis, no. 10). How difficult his life must have been before this revelation! How hard must it have been for him to believe and love! “Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it” (Ibid). With his health restored, the man became an agent of God’s redemption. Who could keep him silent now about this wonderful experience of his Savior he has had? How loved by God this man must have felt that day when Christ restored his health! This man believed and so he speaks! Why am I silent? Do I not know that as a Catholic I am to be a witness to the world that love exists?

Conversation with Christ:

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!

You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.

In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things, which you created.

You were with me, but I was not with you.

Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all.

You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.

You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness.

You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you.

I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.

You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

(The Confessions of St. Augustine)

Resolution: Today, I will share an aspect of my faith with a friend or family member.

Homily of the Day

February 13, 2015

In 1896, Dr. Hal Foster, an otolaryngologist in Kansas City, Missouri, called the first meeting of what would later become the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

But Jesus was already ahead of him thousands of years ago, when he cured this deaf man by putting his fingers into the ears, touching his tongue and shouting “Ephphetha” – and the man’s ears and tongue started to work perfectly. Christ was probably the first innovative EENT physician, who cured with divine power, without surgery or using MRI or any medical instrument.

It is important to emphasize how simple and yet how great this action of Christ to cure this man was. Christ looked up to heaven to his Father before healing the person.

Today Jesus can also heal us. We may not be deaf nor dumb, but we may not be using our mouth and ears as Christ would want us to do. We use our ears to listen to gossip and our tongue to speak ill, insult or destroy people. All the parts of our body have been created in order to utter the praise due to our God, but we have used them for our own motives and whims. And many times we have committed sin with our ears, eyes, mouth and tongue.

We have not evolved to develop into beings with Christian eyes, ears, mouth and tongue. For this, we need a special healing from Christ to give us new eyes, new ears, new mouth and new tongues. Ephpheta means “ be opened.” It means that when Christ cures us, we become open to do God’s will, with all the parts of our body. They cooperate in order to fulfill the mission of Christ to bring all men to Heaven. Let us deeply evaluate the state and especially the use of our ears, eyes, mouth and tongue and cry out to the Lord to heal us.

One Bread, One Body

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All Issues > Volume 31, Issue 2

<< Friday, February 13, 2015 >>

Genesis 3:1-8
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Psalm 32:1-2, 5-7

Mark 7:31-37
Similar Reflections

ANSWER THE FALL

"The woman answered the serpent." —Genesis 3:2

We read today's first reading and we want to shout: "Oh, Eve! Flee from the serpent! Don't give him the time of day. Oh, Adam! Don't eat it! Throw the fruit away!"

Through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, we have inherited a world polluted with sin and death (Rm 5:12). It's so tempting to want to put all the blame on Adam and Eve: "Now look what you've done. You messed up the whole world and now we have to live in your mess. It's all your fault." Yet that is exactly what Adam did: he shifted the blame from himself to Eve (Gn 3:12). Eve took her cue from Adam and shifted the blame to the serpent (Gn 3:13).

We have inherited a fallen nature from our first human parents, Adam and Eve. It's in our spiritual genes, and we can't help it. We are programmed to sin, and then to blame others for the consequences. But God is rich in mercy: He sent His only Son, Jesus, into the world to conquer sin and death. Jesus came to redeem us from our sins. Through His obedience, all of us can become just (Rm 5:19). We rejoice with the words of the Easter Vigil liturgy: "O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!"

Adam and Eve shifted the blame onto others. We have done the same. God, however, has shifted the weight of our sins onto Jesus. Give your fallen nature to Jesus, and receive His risen life.

Prayer: "I confess my faults to the Lord" (Ps 32:5). "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner" (Lk 18:13).

Promise: "Their amazement went beyond all bounds: 'He has done everything well! He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!' " —Mk 7:37

Praise: Jesus healed Laura of a tumor in her neck.

Something for everyone to think about!

"A country which kills its own children has no future."

-Blessed Teresa of Calcutta