“SPRINGS OF LIVING WATER”
Daily Spiritual Reflections,
12th February 2021
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FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Gen 3: 1-8
Ps 32: 1-2, 5-7
Mk 7: 31-37
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EPHPHATHA: ‘BE OPENED’ TO GOD’S GRACE
God loved the world so much that, having created us in love, he sent his only begotten son, so that we may not perish but have eternal life. Come what may, in whatever situation or state we may find ourselves, one cry from us melts his heart and moves him to compassion. In the face of such overwhelming love, can we imagine desiring something contrary? Yet, that is what is at the core of every sin – a desire or choice contrary to the love of God and against his will.
God placed Adam and Eve in a beautiful earthly paradise where nothing was lacking. There was one thing prohibited – the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But when the serpent maliciously presents to them an alternative life, invested with the knowledge of good and evil, that seemed glorious, they considered it. Just considering an alternative to the love of God is foolishness beyond compare. Yet, they didn’t stop there. They went ahead and chose it. And they made this choice with the gifts that God himself had given them – of sight, of taste, of movement… in one word, the human capacities. For, they “saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give. So (they) took some of its fruit and ate it,” thus corrupting with the stain of guilt and the weakness of degrading passion those very same gifts.
This is the story of every sin, i.e., using the gifts of God given to us of his immense love, to nurture desires, make choices and live lives contrary to his will. Consequently, every sin adds to the degradation of our human capacities, further weakening them and making them susceptible to greater sin. Through this seemingly hopeless descent into destruction shines forth bright and clear the person of Christ, as he, with a compassion touch and a powerful authority, commands, “Ephphatha”, ‘Be opened’, be healed. May foolishness not reign in our lives, but rather, the word of the Lord.
Response: Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.
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