Opened to Life

The name Anne Sullivan is probably not one that rings a bell for most of us. But the name of her famous student might. Helen Keller became blind and deaf before the age of 2 as a result of illness; deprived of sight and sound, she was more or less cut off from the outside world. However, through her remaining sense of touch, and through the patient and persistent instruction of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, a new world opened up for Helen. She learned to read, write, even to speak, and eventually became a world-famous author, lecturer, and human rights activist. It was all possible because of the gift that she had been given by her teacher: not just to learn to read and speak, but to experience life in a totally new way.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives a man a similar gift: not just to heal his physical impediments, to make it possible for him to hear and to speak, but to open him to experiencing life in a totally new way. All of Jesus’s healing miracles have this dynamic: the lame man given the ability to walk again; the woman cured of the hemorrhage; Peter’s mother-in-law cured of a fever; blind Bartimeus made able to see. All of these persons and more received from Jesus some true, bodily healing, but in a certain sense, that healing was a means to a higher end: to open those persons to new life, to experiencing the fullness of life in a way that they had not known before.

The Healing of a Deaf and Mute Man, Ottheinrich Bible, c. 1420

Today’s Gospel probably brings to mind the people in our lives whom we wish to be healed. Maybe we think of someone sick with Covid, or a friend or family member who is battling cancer, or a loved one who is struggling with depression or addiction or some other form of mental illness. We might even think of ourselves! But while we can and should pray for God to heal these persons, we shouldn’t despair if he does not. Why? Because the true healing that God desires is not a bodily reality but a spiritual one. We see this even in the Gospels. Jesus doesn’t stay in every town and village until all the sick people are well. Rather, he works particular miracles at particular times to show everyone that he has the power to communicate life, to transform a person’s life, opening them to something greater.

In a very real sense, that something greater is Jesus himself. When he says, 'Ephphatha', “Be opened,” to the man in today’s Gospel, what he wants to open him to is not to hear any old thing, but to hear *him*; not just to speak any old thing, but to respond to *him*. Jesus wishes to communicate a new and deepened experience of life precisely so that we may encounter him at the center of our life, as our Life itself. In this way, then, this Gospel is applicable to all of us. We might be inclined to think of our friends and loved ones who are in need of healing, but really, we should think of ourselves – *we* are in desperate need of the spiritual healing that only Jesus can give.

Perhaps we might reflect on two questions this week, in light of this Gospel. First, where in my life do I need the transformation that Jesus can give? Where do I need to be spiritually opened to his life – to hear him, to respond to him – in some deeper way: in my prayer, in my relationships, in my moral life? And second, where can I help others to experience the same? Anne Sullivan helped transform Helen Keller’s life through her patient and persistent teaching. Today’s Gospel says the deaf man was brought to Jesus by others, and after his healing, he went out and proclaimed what had happened to him to others. Who is Jesus calling me to speak to, to witness to about the transformation I have received, about the new life that he has given to me?

Friends, this is the basic rhythm of the Christian life: to encounter Jesus, ever more deeply, and then to go and help others to do the same. Our previous pontiff, Benedict XVI, once said, “The happiness you are seeking, the happiness you have a right to enjoy has a name and a face: Jesus of Nazareth.” May we seek and find that Happiness ourselves, so that finding it, like the man in today’s Gospel, we also can proclaim the newness of life we have found in him.