Open my lips

Today's Scripture

The prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours, prayed by priests, religious and many lay people begin with "Lord open my lips and my mouth will proclaim your praise." Jesus fulfills this with the deaf man today as he also cures his speech impediment. He does it in a way that is gritty and physical. I know it's lost some popularity in a post COVID world, but I believe that physical touch is important, comforting, needed. Jesus agrees.

So much so that he reaches out and touches the leper, an act that could have had him declared unclean himself. He takes Peter's mother-in-law by the hand and lifts her up out of her feverish state. He allows a woman to wash his feet with her hair and turns around and washes the feet of every one of his disciples. He immersed himself in human touch. It was a big part of why He was here.

The incarnation was the supernatural way in which God could physically touch us. Think of it - a being that existed before all matter existed and is powerful enough to set unimaginably hot stars in the sky and planets in orbit, not to mention create everything that we are able to lay our eyes upon, might literally be hard to wrap our arms around. But, as usual, God has a plan for that. He doesn't come and 'inhabit a body', replacing a creature's mind and soul, no. He unites himself fully with a full human, with a human will, a human intellect, human emotions and a human body, all of which will allow Him to interact with His human children in a way that is the most real and most intimate for them - and perhaps for Him (I don't pretend to know what God does or doesn't feel).

Jesus takes this to the full. The Gospels are full of the sights and sounds and smells and touches that Jesus brings to bear in his ministry, but mostly the touches. It was as if God Himself was savoring this experience. A thousand pictures of beaches or even looking out over one does not compare with one moment of your toes in the sand. This is true not only of the pleasant things, the healing things, but also the suffering.

Jesus embraces His suffering and death, and even though it need not be this way, His glorified body bears the scars. Does He run His fingers over them as He thinks of our suffering and offers again to heal our wounds, make us clean, make us whole? I'm not sure of that, but I am sure that He recalls every word He uttered and that the Holy Spirit inspired to be written about His time here in the scriptures. I am certain that He recalls groaning and calling out 'Ephphatha' - be opened.

We must also remember that Jesus uses the physical to teach us of the spiritual, and this tradition is carried down throughout our Church today. Garments, vessels, candles, incense, Sacraments that literally TOUCH US - instituted by Jesus to bring Grace. In imploring that the ears and mouth of the man be opened, He was also calling out to us, viscerally, with groaning: BE OPENED!

What is Jesus most hoping that you will come to Him for healing for? What is He literally 'dying' to heal you of? What is it that will draw Him forward to touch you? Is it something physical, is it habitual sin, is it a broken relationship, an estranged son or daughter, friend or brother? Is it the pain of your parent's aging? Jesus knows what it is, and as He runs His fingers over His scars, He is hoping you will ask Him to heal you of THAT thing. It might be messy, there could be spit, or mud or blood involved, but Jesus is ready to reach out and touch you - when He does, will you speak His praise?