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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider Ephphatha! Be opened!

Ephphatha! Be opened!

Published Feb 13, 2026 12:02 am  |  Updated Feb 12, 2026 04:19 pm
The Gospel underlines a twofold healing: Physical healing from deafness, and healing from fear. Just as “hearing” and “speaking” are intimately connected to each other (a person replicates in speech the sound that he or she hears), so also experiencing compassion frees us from fear.
Mark uses the healing scenario to illustrate the deaf man’s physical healing as a way of “opening” to the world—his ears were opened, and his tongue was released. A person deprived of hearing is somehow impaired from knowing what is happening in the world around him; in a way he is marginalized or left in the sidelines.
By healing the deaf and dumb man, Jesus opens his ears and speech, and frees him in order to rejoin the normal relationship with the rest of his brethren, even as he praises God for the cure. Such are the conditions of those who are sick and disabled.
Jesus’ gesture of healing demonstrates to his hearers that they too can become “enablers” and “supportive” of those members of our society who are considered persons with disability (PWDs); in the process, these regain their dignity as children of God. When people with disability are treated with compassion and love, in gratitude they too rejoice and proclaim God’s goodness.
Gospel • Mark 7:31-37
Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, ‘Be opened!’) And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.
He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2026,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.

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