20190215
THE
REAL DEAF AND DUMB
15 FEBRUARY,
2019, Friday, 5th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Genesis 3:1-8 ©
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The fall of man
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The serpent was the most subtle of all the
wild beasts that the Lord God had made. It asked the woman, ‘Did God really say
you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’ The woman answered
the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit
of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, “You must not eat it, nor
touch it, under pain of death.”’ Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘No! You
will not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened
and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.’ The woman saw that the tree
was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was desirable for the
knowledge that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She
gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of
both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed
fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.
The
man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the
cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 31(32):1-2,5-7 ©
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Happy the man whose
offence is forgiven.
Happy the man whose offence is forgiven,
whose sin is remitted.
O happy the man to whom the Lord
imputes no guilt,
in whose spirit is no guile.
Happy the man whose
offence is forgiven.
But now I have acknowledged my sins;
my guilt I did not hide.
I said: ‘I will confess
my offence to the Lord.’
And you, Lord, have forgiven
the guilt of my sin.
Happy the man whose
offence is forgiven.
So let every good man pray to you
in the time of need.
The floods of water may reach high
but him they shall not reach.
Happy the man whose
offence is forgiven.
You are my hiding place, O Lord;
you save me from distress.
You surround me with cries of deliverance.
Happy the man whose
offence is forgiven.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Jn6:63,68
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are
life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.Ac16:14
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O Lord,
to accept the words of your Son.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 7:31-37 ©
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'He makes the deaf hear and the dumb
speak'
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Returning from the district of Tyre, Jesus
went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, right through the Decapolis
region. And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech;
and they asked him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away
from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with
spittle. Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha’,
that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue
was loosened and he spoke clearly. And Jesus ordered them to tell no one about
it, but the more he insisted, the more widely they published it. Their
admiration was unbounded. ‘He has done all things well,’ they said ‘he makes
the deaf hear and the dumb speak.’
THE REAL DEAF
AND DUMB
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ GEN 3:1-8; PS 32:1-2, 5-7; MARK 7:31-37 ]
In the gospel, Jesus was
asked to lay His hands over a man who had a speech impediment because he was
deaf. Jesus
promptly “took him aside in private, away from the crowd, put his fingers into
the man’s ears and touched his tongue with spittle. Then looking up to heaven
he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened’. And his ears
were opened, and the ligament of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly.”
Yet the irony of it all
was that the man who was supposedly deaf and dumb turned out to be the only one
who could hear and act wisely.
The others were the ones who were really deaf and dumb. They did not hear
what Jesus instructed them. “Jesus ordered them to tell no one about it,
but the more he insisted, the more widely they published it. Their admiration
was unbounded. ‘He has done all things well,’ they said ‘he makes the deaf hear
and the dumb speak.'” By announcing to others what Jesus had done, they
thought that they were doing Jesus a favour when in fact they were helping the
devil to diminish His ministry.
Right from the start of
Jesus’ ministry, the devil sought to distract Jesus from relying on the power
of God through humble service.
He sought to tempt Jesus to perform feats to prove to others in a spectacular
way that He was the Son of God. In the Temptation Story of Jesus, He was
tempted to change stone to bread and to jump down from the pinnacle of the
Temple. (cf Mt 4:1-11) The
devil sought to have others follow Jesus simply because of the miracles.
This is still the temptation today. When we proclaim the gospel simply on
miracles without the message, Jesus becomes simply a dispensing machine to
fulfill all the desires of man, especially worldly desires instead of living
the kingdom life of love, service and obedience to His will. This
explains why Jesus forbade the devil to reveal His identity because He wanted
the people to come to know Him personally rather than by hearsay. (cf Mk 1:21-28)
The placing of the
healing of the deaf and dumb man is sandwiched between two groups of people who
were supposedly able to hear the Word of God and obey it. Earlier on, Jesus was reprimanding the
Scribes and Pharisees, people who were meticulously observant of the Law of
Moses and knew how to interpret the Word of God. He cited from the
prophet Isaiah, “this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are
far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as
doctrines.'” Indeed, as He remarked earlier on, saying, “They may indeed
look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that
they may not turn again and be forgiven.” (Mk 4:12) Following this healing miracle
was the multiplication of loaves for five thousand. Again, they were dumb
and unable not able to see the work of God. Instead, the Pharisees asked
for a sign. (Mk 8:11-13)
However, even His own disciples were deaf, blind and dumb. Jesus told
them, “Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts
hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to
hear? And do you not remember? Do you not yet understand?” (Mk 8:17f, 21)
In the first reading,
this inability to hear and act wisely is illustrated in the Temptation Story of
our first parents.
Specifically, God instructed Adam and Eve not to eat “the fruit of the tree in
the middle of the garden.” God said, “You must not eat it, nor touch it,
under pain of death.” Yet, we read that they obviously did not hear
clearly what the Lord said to them since the devil asked the woman, “Did God
really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?”
Indeed, this is how the temptation of the Evil One works, by raising doubts in
our minds with regard to the truths that we hold in our lives.
This explains why those
of us who do not read the Word of God or keep ourselves abreast of the
teachings of the Church often raise doubts about the scriptures and the
Church’s teaching because
our point is based not on the bible or the authoritative teaching of the Church
but some opinions of the world. In fact, we Catholics tend to consult
everyone else in the secular world about the truth of what moral values are,
rather than the Church. Rather than departing from the viewpoint of the
Word of God and then seeking to understand that of the world, we are prejudiced
against the scriptures and the teaching of the Church. When doubts are
raised about our faith without us clarifying it for ourselves, doubts will
eventually lead to a weakening of faith. This is how the devil is
destroying faith in the world today, by raising doubts over the truth of what
the Church is teaching, or the credibility of their Church leaders.
Secondly, we read that
the woman was misguided. She was too dumb to know what true knowledge
is. Jesus tells us that the devil is the Father of lies. Jesus said, “You are from your father the
devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the
beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the
father of lies.” (Jn 8:44) The way
of the Evil One is to distort the truth, much like how fake news is being
transmitted so quickly in the world through social media. Before one
realizes that these are fake news, the minds of the people who read them would
have been contaminated and prejudiced, or they might never even find out that
what they read were half-truths.
Truly, half-truths are
not easy to decipher. The
devil suggested to the woman saying, “No! You will not die! God knows in fact
that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods,
knowing good and evil.” That is why sin is always presented as something
pleasant and pleasurable. This is why it is always tempting and
irresistible. “The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the
eye and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give. So
she took some of its fruit and ate it. She gave some also to her husband who
was with her, and he ate it.” So the knowledge of good and evil
brings more disaster to us. What is evil is often presented as good; and
what is good is portrayed as evil. This is what the Evil One is doing in
today’s time. The moral values of the gospel are portrayed as against the
happiness and freedom of humanity whereas the amoral values of the world are
presented as beautiful, gracious, dignified and good for humanity.
What were the
half-truths that the devil tempted the woman with? Firstly, he
failed to tell her what it meant for their eyes to be opened and the
implications of knowing what is good and evil. To know what is good and evil does
not mean that one has absolute freedom. The world today thinks that
freedom is to do what one likes to do. This is not freedom but slavery
masked as freedom. When we are not in control of ourselves or unable to
determine the ultimate good for ourselves, we do not have freedom. True
freedom is to do the right thing and for our real good, not just apparent
good. True freedom is obedience to the truth. So just by knowing
what is good and evil will not give us the power to do the right thing.
St Paul himself, basing on his own experience confessed, “I do not understand
my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I
hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.”
(Rom 7:15f) True enough, we read that “the eyes
of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they
sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.” In other
words, they realized that they could no longer control their lust and sensual
desires. Hence, they had to wear clothes to hide their bodies from each
other unlike before the fall. In other words, they lost their freedom, which is
what we call concupiscence, the effect of the sin of disobedience.
Secondly, he deceived
them into thinking that they will be like gods. Whilst it is true that we are
called to be like God by imitating Him in love, in virtues and in life, we are
not gods. The deception of the world today is that the One God has been
replaced by many gods. Everyone in the name of relativism proclaims
himself to be god, because he knows everything and he knows what is good for
him. He supplants the place of God to be his own moral principle and no
one else. When we do not acknowledge God and make ourselves our own
god, our arrogance and self-confidence will lead us to self-destruction.
When man seeks to be God without God, which is what Adam and Eve sought to do,
they become more confused and unenlightened.
Today, we are called to
be true to our identity as God’s children. Instead of falling into the temptations of
the Evil One, we must avoid temptation by being alert as St Peter warns
us. “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your
adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Pt 5:8) We must flee from temptations
instead of allowing negative and unwholesome thoughts to be conceived into
words and actions. To resist temptations, we must watch and pray as the
Lord advised us. “Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time
of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt 26:41) “Finally, be strong in the
Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. With all of
these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all
the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Eph 6:10f; 16f)
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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