First Reading - Genesis 3:1-8
Gospel - Mark 7:31-37
The first reading narrates the story of the fall of our first parents. The story is indeed very familiar to us. However, one thing we can easily notice in the story that is the conversation between the serpent and the woman prior to the fall. The woman converses with the serpent and finally falls prey to it. The conversation with the serpent can be taken as a figurative dialogue between the two selves that we face every everyday; spiritual self and the evil inclination or selfish self. The spiritual self tries to reason according to what God wills and wishes but selfish self tries to surpass and prevail over the spiritual self in order to assert oneself. The fall of our first parents is in fact the victory of the selfish self that desires to be equal with God or tries to assert oneself even over God. The fall of our first parents was the result of greed or selfish desire to be like God which proceeded from the selfish self. The result of listening to the selfish self was that the first parents realized their nakedness and hid themselves from the presence of God. It symbolically reminds about the guilt feeling and feeling of shame that encompass a person after commiting a sin.
The gospel presents to us a beautiful episode of Jesus healing a mute and deaf man in the territory of Tyre. The mute and deaf man is brought to Jesus by people with a request to lay his hand on him. Jesus takes him away from the crowd to hide the healing due to the surging popularity and touches his ears with his fingers and touches his tongue with his spittle and restores him. He gets healed and released from the impediments.
Dear friends, in the fast growing materialism, consumerism, individualism, sectarianism, and new ageism, we do need a touch of Jesus to see what is pleasing to God, to hear the voice of God and speak what is the will of God. The first reading clearly mentions the effect of not listening to God; the lose of paradise, shame and guilt. Therefore, it encourages us to be mindful of the talks between the spiritual self and the selfish self. Our obedience to our selfish self can make us spiritually impaired which would result in the feeling of shame and guilt and the lose of the friendship with God. We may be physically able to hear and speak but can be spiritually impaired to hear and speak. The social evils are soaring higher day-by-day due to materialism, consumerism, individualism, sectarianism, and new ageism. They make us deaf and mute to talk about gospel and gospel values. It's a sign of spiritual muteness. In such situations, we need a touch of Jesus to see the fast spreading social evils around us; to hear the voice of God and to speak and disclose the will of God so that all people may be released from the bondage of deafness and muteness with the words of Jesus "Ephphatha" - Be opened.
We do need a touch of Jesus to be released from the bondage of spiritual muteness and deafness; to hear Him and speak about him. We call ourselves missionaries but we fail many times to hear and speak the word of God. We have many topics to discuss about but a small space to talk and speak about spiritual matters. They reveal our spiritual deafness and muteness.
Let's pray today that Jesus may touch us today so that we may be cured from our spiritual muteness and deafness.
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