Ephphatha!

Several years ago, in January a major newspaper conducted an experiment you may have heard about. The experiment involved Joshua Bell, one of the world’s greatest violinists who performed for almost all the world’s major orchestras. Joshua Bell was commissioned to play his $4,000,000 Stradivarius violin in a subway station in Washington, D.C. Joshua was only available in January. So, he dressed like a street musician looking for tips and sat in the subway station playing for 45 minutes. The newspaper crew had a hidden camera to video the entire event. Out of the 1097 people who passed by him, seven stopped to listen! He received $32.17 in tips not counting the $20 he received from one person who recognized him.

The conclusion of the study verified that he'd be largely ignored (though not THIS largely ignored). His performance was an experiment in context, perception, and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, on a cold day, would beauty transcend? [from the author of the study]

Some readers of the story started to cry. As one person said, “I cried because I find it scary and depressing to think of how obliviously most people go through daily life, even smart and otherwise attentive people. Who knows what beautiful things I've missed by just hurrying along lost in my thoughts? Another person said, “It's almost a panicky feeling, that if a performance by Joshua Bell on his Strad gets lost in the shuffle, what about all the smaller beautiful things that happen every day and could be making people happier, if only they paid attention?”

Listening is love; a voluntary involvement of the whole person, divesting oneself to be open to the reality of God. Our First Reading from Isaiah says, “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared.”

To be opened is also to recognize all forms of suffering and hardship, whether they be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or social, but it especially recognizes the wounds of those who have come to believe that they are unloved or unlovable.

Nelle Morton “recalls a story from the life of Carl Jung. As an intern at Burgholzli Hospital, Jung worked with women who had become withdrawn and mute. The doctors who treated them assumed they had no language of their own; thus, they attempted to treat them by speaking at them. Jung tried to find a way to make contact with the women "not as they 'should' be, but as they were." He studied certain repetitive movements each woman made and listened for any repeated syllables or words. He began to imitate their movements, searching for

words that matched the motions. Finally, one after the other, the women recognized the connection between gesture and word and each began to speak. "He had touched the place where the connection had been broken. But he did this through their own language and not the language of the doctors. He had heard them to speech... to their own speech." 1

Jesus touched the deaf man who had a speech impediment ears and tongue-- the Lord is willing to touch you’re hurt. To heal us in a world that has become deaf and silent about God, of the striving for sanctity.

And it he did at our baptisms; the priest or deacon touched your ears and mouth while saying these words:

“The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the mute speak. May he 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 fact, the Ephphata was a rite that was originally exorcistic, preparing for the renunciation of Satan (“Do you renounce?”) but, at Vatican II, it became a preparation for the confession of faith (“Do you believe?”) by opening the ears and lips of the one to be baptized.2

You need both.

Hear Jesus say “Ephphatha!” when you got spiritual wax in the ears of your heart mentioned in Matthew 13:15 and Isaiah 6:10 which is a deliverance from evil prayer.

• "Ephphatha! Be opened." Let your ears be open to Christ's word of forgiveness for your sin.

• "Ephphatha! Be opened." Let your eyes be open to see the opportunities God is making available in your world

• "Ephphatha! Be opened." Let your mind be open to new ways of thinking that will expand your understanding of God's will for you and yours.

• "Ephphatha! Be opened." Let your mouth be opened to share with your friends what God is doing in your life.

• "Ephphatha! Be opened." Let your life be open to the movement of the Spirit, open to release from whatever is scaring you, stopping you, holding you back, from becoming the person you want to be, the person God wants you to be.3