As a third grader I took part in a weekly Bible Camp at a local church. One of the workbook activities asked, “Who first told you about Jesus?” In my case, it was my grandparents who had told me about the faith. As a child, I enjoyed looking at the many images of Jesus and Mary in their house, and my grandma explained to me who they were. As simple as it sounds, this encounter helped prepare for me for my further encounters with Jesus. It helped prepare me as a seven-year-old not only to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, but also to begin thinking about the priesthood. And it helped prepare me as a seminarian to receive the powerful reminder that Jesus does speak to us in prayer. But it all went back to that initial encounter.

Today’s Gospel of the healing of the deaf and mute man is commemorated during the sacrament of Baptism through the Ephphatha Rite. In this Rite, the minister touches the ears and the mouth of the infant and says, “May the Lord Jesus, who made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak, grant that you may soon receive his word with your ears and profess the faith with your lips, to the glory and praise of God the Father.” Jesus’ physical healing of the man in today’s Gospel points to a deeper spiritual meaning, that Jesus opens our ears to receive His Word, and our lips to proclaim it.

In order to proclaim the faith, we first have to receive it with our ears. This is where it can be helpful to return to that moment when the faith was first proclaimed to us. This reminds us how God has been drawing us closer to Himself throughout our lives, but it also can reveal to us places where we need to grow. Even if we have already had a lifechanging encounter with Jesus, that encounter is only the beginning. We still need to ask Him to keep the ears of our hearts open to hear when He is speaking to us.

When we do this, we are allowing the Holy Spirit to equip us to proclaim that same Gospel to others. But the key word to remember here is the word of Jesus: “Ephphatha,” which means “be opened.” We need to be open to the action of the Holy Spirit, so that He can help us to know when it is the right time to share the Gospel with others, but also to realize that even though we are the ones proclaiming the Gospel, it is the Holy Spirit Who moves their hearts to encounter Him.

As we return to that moment when our ears and hearts were first opened to the love of Christ, we also ask Jesus to help us to continue to be open to Him. This openness to Christ can then allow us to be the one who first introduced another person to Jesus.

Father Frank