Concretely,
Jesus healed a man with both a hearing and a speech impediment. While the nuts
and bolts vividly refer to the restoration of two senses in the man, a more implicit
focus is actually on the nature of sacramentality. A fitting locus to better
appreciate the essential workings of a sacrament is our experience of technology.
A quality which permeates our hi-tech universe is the ubiquity of touch. In the
case of the all too familiar smudges on our device’s display, think “oleophobic”
screen protector that prevents leaving an oily film residue from repeated
touching. Furthermore, “haptic” is the technology related to tactile
sensation when we interface with our electronic gadgets. The “vibration”
from pressing the screen is an example of haptic feedback.
Thus far,
our reaction to the pandemic has created an absurdity. We are immersively
tactile as apparent through our touch technology. Think vaccination centres
where an official has to help a tech-challenge elderly. Fomite transmission is likely
when the official touches a possibly contaminated smartphone.[1]
At the very least, social distancing is an act which denies the very nature of
who we are as tactile creatures. What has been steadily drummed into us is that
life is secured through “haphephobic behaviour”.
In view of
our proximity and contact anxiety, this miracle which restores the auditory
faculty and speech function to the man born deaf and dumb is bold because Jesus
stuck His finger into the ears and spat on the man’s tongue. How “earthy”
can one get? It is crude, bordering on disgusting, when we contrast this dramatic
healing account with the Centurion seeking a cure for his servant. The
Centurion’s faith expressed in “Lord, I am not worthy that you should
come under my roof but only say the word and my servant will be healed”
occasioned a response from a distance.
Fortunately,
this rather coarse approach to restoration provides a compelling reminder of
the “incarnational” foundation of our sacramental economy. Firstly,
the retention of an Aramaic expression “Ephphatha” (“be
opened”) in a Gospel written in Greek in a way authenticates the “facticity”
of the Incarnation. It is significant that the Evangelist kept the groaning of
Jesus in His mother-tongue. Secondly, that the “Word was made flesh”
is the basis for our oft-repeated definition of a Sacrament: It is an “outward
sign of inward grace”. The Sacraments work through the mediation of outward
signs which make them inherently physical, material and “sense-able”.
They use elements like oil, water, bread, wine. Sensible gestures are not left
out as in the “Rite of Ephphatha” where the celebrant touches the
ears and mouth of the infant after the Rite of Baptism. These gestures are
derived from the healing action of Jesus[2]
in today’s Gospel. Materiality and sensibility, either through natural elements
or symbolic gestures, are the media through which Christ effects His salvation.
And not only that as we shall see later.
The
restoration of hearing is closely linked to the loosening of the tongue. In an
atmosphere of fear generated by Covid 19, Jesus is inviting us to hear and also
to proclaim. In the 1st Reading, God promised through the Prophet
Isaiah to be with us. In the Gospel, Jesus is Emmanuel fulfilled. Under this
tyrannical terror of Covid anxiety, can we hear Him and have we confidence in
His promise of salvation?
Whether we
like it or not, we have become terrified of an essentially human feature. Deeply
suspicious of touch, we view our sacramental nature not as a strength but a mortal
weakness[3].
We console and comfort ourselves that we can happily ease into this “new
normal”, when in fact, it is a myth as we continue to suppress the very
quality or feature that makes us alive.
Given that
God has assured us that we will not be left to our own devices, the challenge
now is to address this overwhelming fear that has invaded our sacramental space
or constitution and has kept us locked in. Can we recover our confidence that
touch is healing? The way forward is to be found in appreciating what it means
to be “touched” by God.
There are
layers “contact” or more appropriately, levels of “touching”.
God is omnipresent and He can touch us even if we are not physically present in
Church. He touches us through Sacred Scriptures, prayers, the homily when we attend
an online Mass. This forms the basis for our spiritual preparation in the
drive-through Holy Communion. Our initiative in providing the Blessed Sacrament
to those who are spiritually prepared is supported by the Gospel today. Now Jesus
touches us physically through the Sacraments because every Sacrament is the
action of Christ Himself effected through the ministers of the Church. We are
not pure spirits but are embodied beings. Thus, redemption is mediated because
the body is to be saved.
While the
Gospel clearly illustrates that the physical healing of the man was restorative,
there is, however, a deeper impairment. Physical impairment is not as limiting
as psychological or spiritual impediment. Hopefully, the physical restoration
of this sense-impaired man allows us to see how deaf and dumb we can be when
our paranoia is psychological and our dis-ease spiritual. A way to recover our
confidence in God is to remember that the only way we can fully live is not to
be afraid of death. This globalisation of paranoia must be illuminated by the
promise of God that the Resurrection restores us to the life promised to us. In
this, we may have unwittingly operated with a mentality of repudiation in which
we forget the past where God has shown Himself to be trustworthy. The
Israelites crossing the Red Sea prefigured the greatest crossing. Christ
Himself “crossed” death to reach the Resurrection. Through His
death, He paved the way for our dying and crossing. Death in a pandemic must
still be contextualised with the promise of the Resurrection.
At the
start, I mentioned that at first glance, the trajectory of the Gospel has
nothing to do with food. But it has. To save us, God touches us to the core of
our being. Therefore it is right to state that Jesus is never far from our
salvation or we are never far from being saved by Him. In this new age of the
Church[4]
Jesus acts through the Sacraments to bring us the salvation which He guaranteed
through Isaiah and effected in the healing touch of the man born deaf and dumb.
For us, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus is the fulfilment of the assurance
made before the Ascension that He will be with us till the end of time. In
conclusion, presuming that one is spiritually prepared, the reception of Holy
Communion by means of the drive through initiative brings out clearly the
aspect of the Eucharist as truly Viaticum—He touches us. Fear not for He will
always be with us along the way until we have arrived at our eternal
destination.
[1] Headphones and headsets. Anything which is shared is possible
fomite transmission.
[2] “The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the dumb
speak. May He soon touch your ears to receive His word, and your mouth to
proclaim His faith, the praise and glory of God the Father. Amen”.
[3] If we think about it, it does not make sense. How can
mortality which is “essential” OF our nature be considered a weakness? We are
mortal beings as the philosopher Heidegger reminds—beings unto death. Every
breath is one breath to death. It should be viewed not as a weakness but rather
as path toward freedom.
[4] Definitely not the New Age that believes that the “self”
is the saviour a la self-help etc.
