The past couple of months have been crazy at our house. We had been preparing to send off our twins to college, so we had a whole bunch of errands and things to do to get them ready. So now, we all three of our sons in college – in three different states, and my wife Stephanie and I find ourselves alone again.
Around the same time, the Beloit College Mindset List came out for the Class of 2016, the same year as our twins entering college. This is a non-scientific report that comes out every year to remind teachers that college freshmen see the world in a much different way than you and I. Here are some of the facts:
- They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it.
- They watch television everywhere but on a television.
- Women have always piloted war planes and space shuttles.
- They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of “electronic narcotics.”
- Michael Jackson’s family, not the Kennedy’s, constitutes “American Royalty.”
- While still fans of music on the radio, they often listen to it on their laptops, MP3 players and iPods.
- They are less likely to identify with a specific religion. Many church denominations have been losing members, while membership is up at nondenominational churches.
This last one really troubles me. And I try to wrap my brain around trying to figure out why this is the case. And my theory is this: these individuals are searching for something that is missing from their lives, something that has been in front of them all along. They’re searching for a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
And isn’t that what we want? But we get so wrapped up in all of the things that we are doing in our lives, and we find that we have closed ourselves off to God, that we have pushed him down on our list of priorities, and we tune him out. To a certain degree, we are all deaf, just like the man in the Gospel reading today. Does it occur to us that, as individuals and as a church, we do not yet fully understand the message of Jesus? Is that not the reason why we have a speech impediment? Do we lack the confidence to spread the Good News to the world? As individuals and as a church, we need to come to Jesus not only for healing and forgiveness, but to be opened and to listen to what he wants us to do with our lives. And this can happen in our Eucharistic celebration, and in our own intimate relationship with Jesus.
In Mark’s Gospel, he beautifully describes an intimate relationship. Jesus takes the man away from the crowd, because he wants his full attention, and no distractions. When Jesus puts his fingers into the man’s ears, he reverses the flow of attention. Jesus is directing the man’s attention into his spiritual center. Then, Jesus spits on his hand and touches the man’s tongue with his spit. Spit comes from the inside and symbolizes the Spirit. Jesus is connecting his Spirit (the Holy Spirit) to the man’s spirit. Now he and the man are interiorly in communion with one another. And then Jesus says one powerful word, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened.” And that is what happens. When Jesus speaks, things happen. And the man’s ears are opened, and his tongue too.
We are all called to be open to God, to be in relationship. He sticks his fingers in our ears so we cannot hear all the distractions from the outside, and then we are guided to the spiritual center of our heart. Then, Jesus places his spirit into us. He unites our center with his center which is open to God. Through this union, this intimate relationship with the Open One, our hearts open. Then we are able to hear and speak the Word of God.
But how do we do this in a world that is constantly telling us that other things are more important than our relationship with God. Honestly, there is NOTHING that is more important than our relationship with God. But just like in any relationship, we must take the time to nurture it. We need that one-on-one time. We need to spend time growing and deepening that relationship. And we do this by making time for prayer. I have found that if you make time to pray everyday, everything else in life falls into place. Things seem to make more sense. Our burdens become lighter.
Pray always, all ways! There are so many ways to pray to help grow our relationship with God. But we have to make the time to hear what God is saying to us, to have that one-on-one time, and to reconnect with God.
It’s time for God to open us up. It’s time for the Gospel to sink in deeper. It’s time to make a deeper commitment to our relationship with Jesus. “Ephphatha!” our Lord says. “Be opened!” We pray that our ears are opened to hear the Good News, and that our tongue is able to praise his holy name, now and forever!
