Let us open ourselves to Jesus!

Parents often marvel at their children. Children know every car; they know how to adjust the radio and TV better than adults. They typically say to their mother, “Mom, you have to do it this way. And the child knows better. Children learn quickly and faster than adults because their senses are keen, clear, lively, and open. That is why it is a cruel misfortune for a child to be deaf or dumb. Today, much is being done for such children to enable them to provide for their existence. In the old days, it was not like that.

The deaf and dumb, of whom the Gospel tells, were one of the most miserable people. Therefore, the Lord will have mercy on him.

Jesus takes the sick man aside from the crowd. He touches his ears and tongue with his fingers. Unlike a doctor touching an ill place to find out the cause of the illness, Jesus is making a touch here that doesn’t examine anything, only suggesting that closed ears and a dumb tongue are the cause’s misery. Therefore, he says to him: “Effeta,” which means, “Open!” At that moment, his ears were opened, and he loosed his fettered tongue and spoke rightly” (Mk 34-35). And he became an average, healthy person who could already listen to others and knew how to compare and amuse himself with others.

Indeed, you have been somewhere where there has been a great noise, a rumbling. When a helicopter flies low, we don’t hear the clock ticking. If we don’t listen to it, it’s not necessarily a hearing fault. It may be something that is deafening us.
If we can’t hear God, we can’t recognize His voice in our conscience; let’s consider why. Perhaps the cause is the din and clamor in which we live. So we need to remove it. Every day, at least for a little while. Indeed, the pace of life today does not allow for long meditations. But everyone can afford a moment of inner silence. It is already a question of will.

But we have become accustomed to the noise. We can no longer bear silence and solitude. Even moments of relaxation we cannot imagine other than with radio, television, or picture magazines. We have to hear, see and read everything. And that is how we fill every moment of the day. Without it, we can no longer eat, wait for the bus, or go for a walk. There must always be something or someone to entertain and distract us. Just not to be left alone with ourselves, alone with God, because that is unpleasant. These are usually the remorseful things we fear, the things we run away from, the things that make us deaf. I hope you understand me well. I am neither against radio nor against television or some laptops, computers, magazines…

I want to warn you that if you do not stay in silence for a minute during the day, you will never hear God’s voice. And yet you’re hearing, even the inner one, may be perfectly fine, so you don’t need any miraculous healing: just courage and a little will. Don’t be afraid of it! God is not punitive justice. God is the first of all-merciful love. It is worth hearing his voice!

However, the deaf is typically also dumb. He cannot speak. Even the deaf in the Gospel was probably brought in by relatives who pleaded for him. Do we have a loved one who is deaf to every good word and hopelessly mute, so there is no presumption that he would maintain for healing? Let us then pray for him. Christ still has the power to heal and is just as willing today. Let us then ask Him for the gift of hearing for all who lack it.

Parents, you know how bad it is when your children are deaf to your warnings. And how many Christians are deaf! And am I not a little one of them? Why? Do I listen and perceive attentively when God speaks to me? The voice of conscience is the voice of God. The words of Scripture, are the words of God. Enlightenment, inspiration, encouragement to do good, but also the reproaches of our loved ones, the sad looks of our children, the tears of our mothers, …in all these things God can speak to us. Can we hear him?

And how about the motherless? You know, when we think of the amount of evil that is done with the tongue, I would almost say that sometimes we should ask for muteness as a gift. I mean, just do the math. How many invectives and wrath have been aroused by slander, by gossip! How many tears have flowed because of slander and insults! How many sleepless nights, black coffees and cigarettes! How much indignation has arisen from unpleasant talk! And the useless and empty words, the frivolous promises, the speeches with which we get on the nerves of the whole world – the surroundings, the provocative speeches! All this is an abuse of the precious gift of speech.