The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
In today's Gospel, Jesus groans between touching the deaf man's ears and tongue, and commanding them to "be opened." The line that Jesus groans always strikes me. Think about how Jesus must have internalized this man's suffering in touching these incapacitated parts of the deaf man's body: ears longing to hear and a tongue aching to speak properly.
Consider the deep feelings of isolation that must have been linked to these physical ailments. No one understanding quite what it was like to be him, the deaf man with the speech impediment.
This passage hits home for me: I lost my hearing progressively with every pregnancy. Doctors could not explain it. I stood at several healing services imagining a moment when someone would, like Jesus, touch my ears and, by His power, my ears would be opened.
It didn't happen.
What did happen was, in my desperation to understand, I cried out. I groaned. Help me understand, Lord, why this is happening to me. What are you trying to teach me?
My ears were not opened in that instant. But in turning to the Lord, my heart was opened. I became open to learning that the Lord can use every suffering to bring us to the best version of ourselves. I learned patience, humility, and a deep appreciation for the senses that I might not otherwise have had.
As Christians, we all have a deep longing within ourselves for physical, spiritual or emotional healing. We must remember that Jesus presses into these longings of ours.
He groans.
He groans with us, and He also groans for us. And then He commands: be opened. Whether that is our hearts, our minds, or our physical abilities, Jesus will heal what needs healing the most—if only we will come away from the crowd with Him and let Him touch those vulnerabilities.
He wants to make us well. He wants our ears, eyes, hearts, and minds to be opened to His healing, to His Love.
Nicole Berlucchi is a Catholic writer and owner of Coley B. Creative, a company providing copywriting, design and social media advertising support to small businesses and nonprofits. Her personal blog, focuses mostly on the Catholic faith with a gravitation towards our Eucharistic Lord and Mary, always encouraging others to "Come and see." She and Joe, her husband, reside in Thompson's Station, TN with their four children where they attend Catholic Church of the Nativity.