TRINITY XII – Deus in adjutorium
Introit: (Ps 70) Haste thee, O God, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me: let mine enemies be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul. Ps. Let them be confounded and put to confusion: that wish me evil.
Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
OT Lesson: Thus saith the Lord: In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought. Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine. (Isaiah 29.18-24)
Gradual: (Ps 34) I will alway give thanks unto the Lord: his praise shall ever be in my mouth. V. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
Epistle: Brethren: Such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. (II Corinthians 3.4-9)
Alleluia. O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. Alleluia.
The Holy Gospel: At that time: Jesus, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. (St Mark 7.31-37)
REFLECTION
A Sermon by Fr. David Curry
Christ Church, Windsor, NS, AD 2003
Ephphatha,…Be opened
Hearing and seeing are the biblical senses of understanding. It might seem, at first, that they are simply about what is received, that they are, as it were, merely passive senses, the senses of reception. Something seen is received by the eye; something heard is received by the ear. But there is an activity as well, the activity of seeing and the activity of hearing.
What is seen and heard – the acting upon what is received – is there for the understanding. There is something communicated, the meaning of which we enter into through the profounder activity of understanding. For it is not just the words which are heard or the vision which is seen that is received. What the words signify, what the vision reveals, is given to be understood.
Our understanding is our wrestling with the significance of things. It is a profoundly spiritual activity. It speaks to who we are in the sight of God – those to whom God would reveal himself and into whose presence he would have us come. Hearing and seeing, as the senses of understanding, mean that there is an acting upon what is received. There is a similar double-sidedness to our “being opened”.
In the Gospel for today, “they bring unto [Jesus] one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech”. They beseech the healing touch of Jesus upon this one that is deaf and, if not altogether dumb, at least impeded in his speech to the point that others must speak for him. There is, in response, the putting of his fingers into his ears, a spitting upon the ground, the touching of his tongue – all outward, tangible and physical acts – but, as well, there is Jesus’ “looking up to heaven”, his sighing and his saying unto him “Ephphatha, be opened”. There is, in short, a healing: “and straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.”
As with all the healing miracles of the Gospels, they signify the restoration of our natures. What is wanted by God is not the deformity of our being but the perfection of our humanity. What is wanted is our being made totally and completely adequate to the truth of God; in short, our being opened to God signals our willing what God wills for us.
We are opened in two senses. There is our being opened to receive and there is our being opened to give. We are not just opened to receive; we are opened to give of ourselves out of what we have received. “Open your hearts”, St. Paul tells the Corinthians (2 Cor.7.2). He means that they are to give of themselves. They are to act upon what they have received.
What we are opened out to sets us in motion towards one another. It opens us out to live sacrificial lives, to be giving of ourselves. It is only then that we are truly opened, for only then are we acting in the image of the one who has opened his heart totally and completely to us in the sacrifice of the cross.
In this healing miracle, Christ looks up to heaven. There is, we may say, his openness to the Father out of which comes the healing grace in the form of the words “be opened”. The word is spoken in Aramaic – “Ephphatha” – but its meaning, its significance, is also opened to us by the Evangelist, St. Mark. He gives the word and he gives the interpretation, “be opened”.
On the cross, too, Christ looks up to heaven. His last word is to commend everything in himself into the hands of the Father. “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”. There is the total openness of the Son to the Father in prayer and praise. There is a fundamental connection between the healing miracles of Christ and the death and resurrection of Christ, even more profoundly, with the give-and-take of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the mutual reciprocity of the Trinity itself.
We are opened out to the truth of God so that we can enter into that truth, give ourselves to it, and offer our prayers and praises for it. For what do we give in the giving of ourselves? We give our prayers and praises, our prayers and praises to God, which must impel us towards one another in love. For our prayers and praises are never solitary. They always connect us to one another and to God, to a community in praise of God, a community of prayer and loving service. And such is the Church – if ever we are to be the Church and not some sad parody of its wonderful mystery. What will it take? Only the giving of ourselves to what has been opened out to us. What has been opened out to us? Simply the great and grand things of God himself and for us – the Trinity, the Incarnation and the redemptive work of Christ. “Our sufficiency is from God”, the epistle reminds us. The Gospel underlines the point: they “were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well; he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak”. Will that be said of us?
To be opened then, means to give. It is the strong counter to our contemporary “consumer” religion of pleasure and comfort which is all take and no give. It is not open but closed to the truth of God revealed. He would have us opened to himself and so to one another. … As priest and people together, we need to be open to one another, to be sure, but only and first and foremost, by being open to the things of God. Only then shall we behold the glory.
Ephphatha,…Be opened
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Collect: O Lord, from whom all good things do come: Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And may the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord: and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you and remain with you always. Amen.
—Father Kevin+