Friday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time

Today the Church celebrates : St Benedict of Anian, Abbot (c.750 – 821)

See commentary below or click here
Saint Ephrem : “He put his finger into the man’s ears and… touched his tongue”

1st book of Kings 11:29-32.12:19.

At that time Jeroboam left Jerusalem, and the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the road. The two were alone in the area, and the prophet was wearing a new cloak. Ahijah took off his new cloak, tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam: “Take ten pieces for yourself; the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will tear away the kingdom from Solomon’s grasp and will give you ten of the tribes. One tribe shall remain to him for the sake of David my servant, and of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. and Israel went into rebellion against David’s house to this day.

Psalms 81(80):10-11.12-13.14-15.

There must be no foreign god among you; you must not worship an alien god.
I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open wide your mouth that I may fill it.’
But my people did not listen to my words; Israel did not obey me.
So I gave them over to hardness of heart; they followed their own designs.
But even now if my people would listen, if Israel would walk in my paths,
In a moment I would subdue their foes, against their enemies unleash my hand.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:31-37.

Again he 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.”

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB

Commentary of the day :

Saint Ephrem (c.306-373), Deacon in Syria, Doctor of the Church
Sermon « On our Lord», 10-11

“He put his finger into the man’s ears and… touched his tongue”

Divine strength, untouchable by man, has come down to us and is clothed in a palpable body that those who are poor may touch it and, in touching the humanity of Christ, might perceive his divinity. Through fingers of flesh the deaf-mute felt his ears and tongue being touched. Through palpable fingers he perceived the impalpable divinity when his tongue’s bond was broken and the closed doors of his ears were opened. For the architect and fashioner of the body has come even to him and, with words of sweetness, has painlessly created openings in his deaf ears. Then, too, this closed mouth that up to then had been unable to utter a word, brought forth praise of him who thus caused his barrenness to bear fruit.

In the same way, our Lord made a paste with saliva and spread it over the eyes of the man born blind (Jn 9,6) so that we might understand that he was lacking something – like the deaf-mute. An inborn defect in our human clay was removed due to the leaven that emanates from his perfect body… To make up what was lacking in these human bodies of ours he gave us something of himself, just as he gives himself to be eaten [in the eucharist]. This is how he causes our deficiencies to disappear and raises up the dead, so that we might recognize that, thanks to his body «in which dwells all the fullness of the deity» (Col 2,9), the defects in our humanity are filled up and true life is given to mortal men through that body in which true life dwells.