Reflection: Ephphatha...be opened!

God is love.  Today is Saint Valentine's Day, a day that celebrates romantic love. A great love, a romantic love is good and it brings blessings! Romantic love, eros, has a place and a purpose in God’s plan. Romantic love, eros, has a dignity and it's purpose is to draw man and woman toward marriage, family and ultimately toward God. The deep desire that man and woman have for each other is a sign of the ultimate desire of the human heart for deep union with God. There is an even greater love, agape love. Agape love is loving God above ourselves, above all things and above all people.

Today we live in a world that has lost its way.  Right is wrong. Wrong is right. Everything in our culture has been turned upside down.  We have turned away from the Lord in so many ways.  The culture of death is all around us.  Hearts and minds are closed to the beauty and truth that all life is sacred.

“My people heard not my voice, and Israel obeyed me not; So I gave them up to the hardness of their hearts; they walked according to their own counsels.” Psalm 81:12-13 Today's Psalm

Jesus will heal our hardened hearts when we turn to Him.  He will heal, even when we are not seeking Him. In today's Gospel of Mark, the people brought a deaf and mute man to Jesus, begging that He heal him.  The man did not come to Jesus on his own.  He was brought to Jesus and Jesus laid His compassionate hands on the man and immediately, the man was healed. "Ephphatha...be opened."  Beautiful words of love, hope and healing!

“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.” Mark 7:32-35

Jesus is calling each one of us to come to Him.  Come away with Him to Eucharistic Adoration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation where He can pour His love, sanctifying grace and mercy into our hearts. Come to Him in the Holy Mass where we can hear His Word and receive Him in the Holy Eucharist.  When we receive the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, He heals us and gives us strength and grace to do His Will.  

Once we are filled with His grace and healing love, Jesus calls us to bring others to Him.  To Him, we bring those who have ears but can not hear; mouths but can not speak truth; minds but can not understand reason; eyes but can not see beauty. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  He makes the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute speak, the paralytic walk and He frees those who are chained by demons and sin.  

Let us go out today, in love, bringing the love of Jesus to those we meet.  Through prayer and fasting and offering little sacrifices, Jesus will change hearts.  Pope Francis calls us to an encounter with Jesus.  When He comes to us, we can not help sharing His love with others.  

"Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature."  Mark 16:15