Mk. 7: 31-37
Every miracle is a sign and also a means for God to communicate His message of compassion for suffering humanity. I would like to quote a modern healing miracle experienced by Mr. Jean-Pierre Bely. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an auto immune disorder which attacks the central nervous system. As a result, he was confined to a wheel chair. However, he was not ready to give up on Jesus. He ardently believed that Jesus, who worked healing miracles two thousand years ago, was present in his life. He made a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
There he had a healing experience during a healing service. He testifies this extra-ordinary experience in these words: “As the priest was giving me unction on my forehead and hands, I had the impression that everything was turning around me. In a fraction of a second, I lost all sense of time and space. God was coming to cure my heart. I was invaded by a powerful feeling of liberation and peace that I had never experienced before. “After this experience, he felt tingling in his legs. A few days later, he took his first unaided steps. A series of medical examinations attested that he had minor traces of the sclerosis that once dominated his life. The healing of Mr. Jean-Pierre Bely remains a medical mystery and was declared an official miracle by the Vatican in 2002.
In the book of Genesis, we read about God creating human beings out of mud. He created all the other creatures with His Word, but human beings were fashioned with His hands in His image and likeness. The biblical author of Genesis wanted to emphasise that we remain close to the heart of God as His beloveds. Since we are created in his image and likeness, we are called to grow in the divine perfection which is manifested in the person of Jesus, his only begotten Son. His incarnation perfected our nature, which was torn by the impact of sin. In Jesus’ person, human nature reaches its perfection by living a life of constant communion and fulfilling the divine will of His Abba.
In today’s gospel we see, having observed the lifestyle of Jesus, people commend Jesus that he did everything well. Jesus invites us to grow into this perfection of image and likeness of God by living a life of constant communion and fulfilling His divine will in our lives. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:48) In the gospel passage of the day, we see Jesus helping a person to come out of his imperfection of being mute and dumb. Jesus puts his hands in his ears and touches his tongue, uttering Ephphatha. Immediately, his ears were opened and removed the impediment to speech. Jesus heals the imperfection of this man and helps him to start a new life aiming at the perfection of his heavenly Father.
In the first reading, we see the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the Messianic days. The blind will see, the dumb will hear, the mute will speak and the lame will walk. We witness all these signs being fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus. The question that we need to reflect on is, did all the blind and dumb get healed? No, only chosen ones had this privilege of experiencing his healing power. We should not limit the mission of Jesus to empowering humanity to attain perfection by exercising healing from physical imperfections, rather we are called to glorify God like Jesus. In every action of Jesus, people observed a touch of perfection and an experience of divine encounter. The man who experienced healing from the impediment of hearing and speech, could not remain silent even after the strict warning of Jesus because he was not only freed from the physical deformities but from all the internal impediments that blocked him from seeking his Creator with his whole heart. As we continue our faith journey, let us seek the touch of Jesus so that we may transcend our imperfections gradually and glorify God through our words and deeds, and also treat our brothers and sisters with dignity that they are created by Abba in His image and likeness.