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Oh, the power of a simple word! “Ephphatha!” Jesus says in today’s Gospel, and with that one word, the deaf man’s life changes forever. No longer would he be set apart, isolated from everyone around him. No more would he have to endure the looks that said his disability was somehow his own fault. “Be opened,” Jesus commands, and his life begins anew.
And what about his friends, those who had brought him to Jesus? They would have been familiar with the words of the prophets, like Isaiah in the first reading, who spoke of the coming of God as a time when the ears of the deaf would be unstopped and the speechless would sing for joy. Imagine their amazement, then, when it happened to one of their own, in their very midst. To them, too, Jesus speaks: Ephphatha! Be open, always, to the signs that God is right here among you.
We hear the same word spoken in today’s celebration: Ephphatha! Perhaps we need to open ourselves to the surprising ways God enters our lives anew, disguised in the ordinary events of each day. Or we need to be open to new ways in which we are being called to bring God’s love into a world wounded by division and despair. With gratitude and humility, we pray for hearts open to hear God’s call.