Among the happiest moments of ministry
in the short four and a half months since my Ordination to the Diaconate
was the Sunday morning in the summer
when I celebrated my first Baptism.
The child I baptized was an adorable little girl named Molly Ann.
She behaved very well during the ceremony.
When I was just about to pour the water…
she turned her head and it ran in her eyes…
and she didn’t even cry…she just giggled!
At one point in the ritual of Baptism…
after the actual pouring of water…
the minister says the prayer known as the Ephphetha
over the ears and mouth of the child.
So, as I made the sign of the cross over little Molly’s ears and mouth…
I prayed:
“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,
to the praise and glory of God the Father.”
This prayer has continually been part of the Baptism ritual of our Church
since the fourteenth century…
and it is even spoken of by the early fathers of the Church.
The name of this prayer is the same word Jesus spoke
to the man who was deaf and mute in today’s Gospel…
Ephphetha…be opened!
Each one of us who have been baptized
has experienced the same touch of Jesus through the ministry of the Church.
We may or may not ever have been physically deaf or mute…
yet Jesus has touched our ears and our mouths…
so that we may hear His word and proclaim His faith in a unique way.
Saint Ambrose wrote beautifully about this Baptism prayer…
and about today’s Gospel.
He says that each time we gather like this on the Lord’s Day…
to celebrate the Mass together…
“we witness the opening up of a mystery,”
and we recall the moment of opening…
when the minister touched our ears and mouth at Baptism.
And your ears are touched again by the Word of God, and by the Homily.
In the grace of Baptism, the Lord Jesus opened our ears to hear the Good News…
and opened our mouths to proclaim His faith and to praise Him.
In the Mass, we again encounter the living Word of God,
and enter into communion with the person of Jesus Christ.
Once again, Jesus opens our ears to hear His Word…
and send us forth with mouths open and ready to sing His praise.
And yet, as we are well aware…
we do not always hear Jesus clearly…
and we do not always proclaim Him as we should.
And what is more…
there are so many in our world today
who have never heard Jesus speak to them…
and who will never learn to sing His praises.
Those of you who, like me, suffer from allergies and sinus problems,
know the feeling of being all plugged up in your ears and nose and throat.
The question today is: what has us all plugged up?
What is in the way of allowing us to hear Jesus’ Word and proclaim His faith?
There is no doubt something in many of our lives
that is plugging our ears from hearing Jesus clearly…
and keeping us mute so that we cannot proclaim Christ to the world.
Perhaps it is an addiction…a difficult relationship…
a fear of being unpopular as a Catholic…
a teaching of Christ or of the Church that is difficult to accept…
Something that keeps us separated
from the intimate relationship with Jesus we so desperately need.
Our Baptismal call is to hear the Word of God…
and not just some of God’s Word but all of it…every teaching of the Church…
no matter how difficult they may be to understand and to live.
Our call is also to proclaim the faith we have embraced…
and not just when it is easy.
Sometimes we are called upon
to introduce to another the beautiful faith and the traditions of our Church
or to challenge another who is wrong.
This takes great courage…
and it requires an openness to hear what Jesus has to say to us.
There are many in the world today who have not heard of the heavenly realities
that we are so privileged to celebrate this evening/morning…
and every day we gather for the Sacred Liturgy.
So many people are lost in sin…
and muted by the passing things of this world…
that they do not experience Christ as we do.
It is our task to open our ears to hear Jesus…
to allow His word to really sink in and to nourish our entire lives…
and then to courageously bring the love and truth of Christ to others.
So, today, as we approach to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist,
may we pause to reflect on whatever in our lives
might be keeping us from hearing and proclaiming Jesus Christ.
May we then take whatever that is to prayer…
asking Jesus to truly open up our ears…
and even more than that…our whole being…
to His love and truth.
Then, with joy and amazement…
we can live as we are meant to live…
in constant praise of God who has loved us.
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