EPHPHATHA!

23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 35:4-7

…the ears of the deaf be cleared…the tongue of the mute will sing

Mark 7:31-37

…Ephphatha!  Be opened!

I do love the earthy, raw, Marcan Jesus.  He restores a man’s hearing and speech by putting his finger in the man’s ears.  He heals his speech impediment by spitting and touching his tongue.  In a few verses he heals with spit again as he slowly restores sight to the blind man. 

This Jesus reminds me that it is in the ordinariness of my life that potential holiness resides.  I won’t steward that potential very well if I can’t see it or hear it. 

I pray to be opened…in all my senses…to that which leads to God.  In nature, in human relationships---both peaceful and strained, in playfulness, in work…EPHPHATHA, be opened!