Lectionary reading
First reading: Isaiah 35:4-7
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 145(146):7-10
Second reading: James 2:1-5
Gospel: Mark 7:31-37
Link to readings.
COMMENTARY
The healing miracle – of a deaf person who also has an impediment in his speech – which forms today’s Gospel, Mark 6:31-37, alludes explicitly to a passage from Isaiah 35:4-7, describing the blessings of the messianic age. It is appropriate then that the same passage should also form the First Reading.
The healing miracle performed by Jesus shows him fulfilling the promise that it announces. The passage from Isaiah 35 is actually an addition to the oracles of the pre-Exilic ‘First’ Isaiah and anticipates the tone and content of the great prophet of the Exile who speaks in Isaiah 40-66. It should be noted that the coming ‘vengeance’ and ‘retribution of God’ which it speaks is to be directed not against Israel but against Israel’s enemies (here Edom); it is, therefore, part of Israel’s liberation, not punishment.
ACT OF COMPASSION
In a way that is typical of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus attempts to perform this act of compassion in as secluded a way as possible. He takes the man away from the crowd and performs the healing gestures in private. After the healing, he strictly tells all those around to say nothing of it. But, in vain – the more he enjoins silence on them, the more they spread the news abroad. Out of compassion for wounded humanity, Jesus performs the acts of healing expected of the Messiah. But he does not want the crowds to conclude that he is the Messiah from acts such as these. His messianic identity must be kept a secret for the time being. It is only to be revealed in conjunction with his destiny to suffer and die on the cross. Otherwise, the people will see him entirely in terms of conventional messianic expectation, which had a large element of political leadership bound up with it. As in John 6:15, they will want to take him away and make him their king. Such a messianic role would be totally at odds with the path set out for him by the Father, which is to be the Son of Man who has come ‘not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many’ (10:45).
The healing is one of the most ‘physical’ of all Jesus’ miracles described in the Gospels. In this predominantly Gentile region through which he is passing Jesus acts like a pagan wonder-worker, with special gestures and words (Ephthatha). The man is deaf and has an impediment in his speech. His condition places him at a great disadvantage as regards communication: he can neither receive verbal communication nor freely communicate his own thoughts, feelings and reflections to others. His condition is lonely and isolated. What Jesus does for this marginalised person is to bring him into the hearing and speaking community where interpersonal communication can truly flow through him.
SYMBOLIC INTERPRETATION
Despite this physical aspect, the healing is probably best interpreted symbolically. This is, of course, the case when the Ephphetha ritual is included in the liturgy of Christian Baptism. The celebrant touches the ears and mouth of the person being baptised and prays, ‘May (the Lord Jesus) soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father’.
In a symbolic sense, then, the man healed by Jesus represents all believers. Apart from the grace of God, we are ‘deaf’ to the Word of life spoken to us by the Creator. In the sacrament, Jesus gives us the capacity to hear the life-giving Word, which he then speaks to us in the Scriptures as proclaimed by the Church. Having heard that Word in the context of our own life experience, we then can turn to praise God and share what we have discovered with our fellow believers. Our ears are opened, and our tongues are ‘loosened’ for full participation in the community of faith.
The readings from the Letter of James that provide the Second Readings these Sundays can seem moralising.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
In line with the prophetic tradition of Israel, however, the primary stress of James is upon social justice. The reading today, from James 2:1-5, brings this out in a most effective way with its evocation of a Christian assembly where distinctions between rich and poor are all too obvious.
The final reminder echoes the Beatitudes of Jesus found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Matt 5:3-11; Luke 6:20-26). The poor should have a particularly privileged place in the Christian gathering because they are the objects of God’s predilection – rich in faith and especially set in line to inherit the future kingdom. To despise or belittle them is to go directly against the choice and intention of God. Despite nearly two millennia of hearing the Gospel, most Christian churches and parishes will still find a chastening message here.
Brendan Byrne, SJ, FAHA, taught New Testament at Jesuit Theological College, Parkville, Vic for almost 40 years. He is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Divinity (Melbourne). His commentaries on the Gospels can be found at Pauline Books and Media