In the baptismal ritual, there is a small rite called the Ephphetha Rite in which the priest or deacon touches the ears and the mouth of the one being baptized and says, “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.”
The word upon which we need to focus in the scriptures this Sunday, are the words of Jesus, “Ephphatha!” “Be Opened!”, and the words of Isaiah, “Be strong, fear not!” For our eyes, our ears, our mouths, and, most importantly, our hearts to be opened, we must remain strong and free from fear.
We live in a world consumed in fear. The overriding message of “Be afraid!” assails us day after day on the radio, television and all forms of social media. Fear can paralyze us. Fear will eventually destroy us. I remember a woman coming to me for spiritual direction after 911 who was so fearful that terrorists were going to kill her, she found it near impossible to leave her home to go to church.
Fear prevents us from opening our lives to the freedom of seeing what God wants us to see, to hear what God wants us to hear, to love as God wants us to love. God calls us to let go of these fears that inhibit our growing as disciples of Jesus. Isaiah calls to us from the past telling us that we need not fear because God comes with vindication, God comes to save us.
Often when we think about ghettos, we think of large groups of people living in big urban cities. However, this is an untruth. It matters not where we live, whether it be a rural area, small town, suburbia, or big urban centers, we often find ourselves living in ghettos of our own making. We live in our ghettos because the world outside them is seen as a bad and frightening place. Truth be told, many of our fears are unfounded and largely products of our own imagination.
To open our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our hearts require us to leave the false security and comfort of our ghettos and trust that God will be there to lead us and keep us safe. I remember on July 3rd of 2004 when I received a call from the Chancery. I was told that the Archbishop was reassigning me from St Hubert in suburban Chanhassen parish of 3200 households to be the parish administrator of St Stephen in South Minneapolis. The Archbishop could not find a priest who was willing to be the pastor for the parish. I had served 9 years in a small town parish, and now 20 years in a large suburban parish. Moving my ministry to St Stephen’s was a huge leap out of my comfort zone into something totally unknown to me.
I found St Stephen’s to be a very diverse congregation of disenfranchised people, many of whom were poor, gay and lesbian, ex-priests, ex-nuns, former convicts, the homeless, the developmentally disabled, Ecuadorian and Mexicans, and many people who had been or were broken spiritually, emotionally and physically. We hear in the reading from St James, “Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?” These words of St James’ became so vivid as I sat and talked with, listened to the stories of my parishioners. I found that what I had in common with them was far more than that of our differences. Considering much of what they had experienced in life, their courage to persevere was nothing short of courageous and their faith in God extraordinary. They helped me to see the vulnerabilities in my own life and my own great dependence on God.
When we let go of our fears, we will find our eyes, our ears, our mouths, and our hearts opened up to the presence of God in one another. We find that the homeless man that looks so scary begging for a few dollars at an off ramp, is really a war veteran whose soul was torn asunder when he or she was in combat. Having experienced the horror of combat, he or she could not return to normal civilian life. In the rectory of St Stephens is the parish homeless shelter that sleeps 44 men a night, many of whom I found were Vietnam war veterans suffering from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
There was one homeless man with whom I did spiritual direction who believed that Homeland Security implanted a device in his head and was monitoring everything he said and everywhere he went. He would look nervously out the window at a parked pickup truck on the street and tell me it was someone from the government following him. He didn’t need me to tell him that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and that he should be taking his medications. He needed me to listen to his story. He needed me to see the world through his eyes. I asked him how he coped knowing that his every word and every movement was being scrutinized by the government. Then, I asked him this question, “Where do you find God in all your suffering?” He answered me saying that he firmly believed that God had a plan for him. It was his need to come to know and live God’s plan that prevented him from jumping to his death off the 3rd Ave bridge into the Mississippi River. As our visit ended, I asked him where he lived. He replied, “I live in a storage shelter. It’s not bad living there, but the woman who lives in the storage shelter next to me is crazy.”
Today, Jesus touches our ears, our mouth, our eyes, and our hearts and commands them to be opened. When we trust in God’s power and protection and let go of our fears, we will find ourselves rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that Jesus promises to those who love him.
