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The Gospel this Sunday is Mark’s account of Jesus’ miracle, healing a man who is deaf and dumb. The other readings and psalm suggest a significance for this miracle other than Jesus’ power to heal and his divine compassion for the suffering of those he encountered.
The first reading from Isaiah prophesies a transformation of all creation, not just a world in which ‘the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed’ but that ‘God is coming’ to bring about this transformation, as the Gospel affirms, in the person of Jesus.
The second reading, a letter from James, offers practical advice for a Christian community living out their faith and bringing about the Kingdom of God that Isaiah has prophesied and which the Gospel proclaims.
What does this kingdom look like for those of us who are Jesus followers in our day to day attitudes and choices? James advises the community to avoid ‘the making of distinctions between classes of people’, and warns them not to become ‘judges, and corrupt judges at that’, and to see instead, ‘those who are poor according to the world, that God chose to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to the kingdom..’
We spend the early parts of our lives building reliable generalisations about the world around us by absorbing new experiences and information to moderate and add to these general rules about life in the world. These have a role in protecting us from dangers and risks and in helping us to recognise advantages and opportunities. The generalisations help us to make quick, reliable decisions and mostly operate in a reflexive and unconscious way.
The problem for us as human beings is that our generalisations gain a life and influence of their own, especially in later years, whereby we begin to respond with what neuroscience calls Selective Attention based on what we expect, what we assume and first impressions. Our selective attention promotes the information that agrees with our existing view of others over the information that upsets and confronts our unconscious ‘rules’. We could call this a form of blindness and deafness to understanding our neighbour, our world, and what they may need from us as we strive to build the Kingdom for all.
This part of the Gospel of Mark is the account of a miracle but for me, at the centre of Mark’s account is ‘Ephphatha’, ‘be opened’. The other readings expand on the idea of what it means to be fully ’opened’ to God’s invitation to build the Kingdom as the Lord’s Prayer says, ‘on earth, as it is in heaven’. Fully alive and fully aware, may we be opened and healed from our most hidden deafness and inability to speak up.
There is some ironic humour in Mark’s account. Jesus heals the man’s speech and then asks him to be quiet about it. Of course, the healed man uses his newfound capacity to tell everyone. Could we be quiet about that?
