This Sunday’s gospel is the passage from Mark chapter 7:31-37.  It is the story of Jesus healing a man who was both deaf and had an impediment in his speech.  At the centre of the text, Jesus touches the man’s ears and tongue and says to him Ephphatha, which means “Be opened”.  Like so many of the gospel writings, this story has multiple levels of meaning.  Healing stories in the gospels are never just about physical healing.  There is always more going on than meets the eye.

The man in the story has no name.  He is everyone.  He is me and he is you.  He is man and he is woman.  He is adult and he is child.  He is old and he is young.   And to all, to every human person that lives Jesus calls out “be opened”.  Be open to hearing and be open to speaking.

And when you think about it hearing and speaking are things that we do every day.  We spend much of our lives listening and speaking to one another.  Is there something different about the listening and speaking to which Jesus calls us?

Listening with gospel ears can tune us into the world in different ways.  On this Sunday when we celebrate the first Sunday of Season of Creation we are called to listen to the cry of the earth and its people.  This listening can come about in us in all manner of ways.  Sometimes it is in images and words other times in song and silence.

I had a ‘be opened’ moment when I was captured by the words of this week’s communion hymn in our online Mass.  The hymn is called Touch the Earth Lightly and it was written by New Zealand liturgical-music composer, Shirley Murray, who died in January last year.  It made me think about the earth and its people in a fresh way.  Here is the text:

Listen to Touch the Earth Lightly

By Fr Brendan