EPHATHA

Isn’t it the case that all eternity is necessary
so that our gaze can open up to the light?

Teilhard de Chardin

Let us focus first of all on the word ephatha that Jesus pronounces on the deaf and dumb man. Ephatha is a word that already occurs in Isaiah (35.5 LXX) and is used, in a prophetic key, to announce the salvation that God will bring about in favour of his people. The passage from Mark attests that what was announced has its fulfilment in Jesus. Hence the reaction of the crowd: «he has done everything well: he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak» (Mk 3,37). This exclamation not only expresses amazement but also faith, and refers to two Old Testament texts: «He did everything well» refers to Gen 1.25, where the author states that at the end of each creative act «God saw that it was good». «He makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak» refers instead to the Is 35. In a word: the crowd recognized in Jesus the very action of God who inaugurates a new creation (Genesis) according to the promises made to the fathers (Isaiah). In the Christian baptismal rite the ephatha has been preserved precisely in memory of this evangelical passage. Man must be able to listen to the word of God and pronounce it with his lips. In ancient times, during the rite of baptism, the neophyte’s nostrils were also touched with saliva on the finger and at the end they said: “Ephatha, open yourself to the smell of sweetness” (in odorem suavitatis). In short, Jesus’ action is aimed at making man open with all his senses to what is outside of him. We are before an infinitely open God, who wants man in his image and likeness, capable of entering into free and fruitful dialogue with himself, his neighbour and creation.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey