A Word from Your Pastor September 9

“The Ephphetha,” which we hear about in the Gospel today, is one of the rituals that follows the pouring of the water in the Rite of Baptism of infants in the Catholic Church.  The celebrant touches his thumb to the ears and lips of the newly baptized child and says these words: “May the Lord soon touch your ears to receive His Word, and your mouth to proclaim His Faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father.”

We can recognize this as one of the actions associated with the Sacraments of the Catholic Church that comes clearly and directly from the Scriptures.  If you pay attention to your Bible and to all the words and gestures of the Rites of the Church, you will be able notice more of these.  We are steeped in the Scriptures because the Scriptures flow from the very Life of the Church and return to renew and deepen that Life from age to age.

Over the past several months, it has been almost eerie how closely the Scriptures assigned to each day at Mass have spoken directly to the events going on around us.  We are called to live the Faith today just as it has been lived in every generation.  Our Baptism equips us to put the Word into practice.

We are to hear the Word, to understand it and allow it to penetrate our hearts, and to allow it to be evident in our lives.  We are to proclaim our Faith in the Word, by what we say and by our actions.  Praise of God is the response that flows from a lived experience of the Word.  We who live the Word praise God for the new Life that has been shared with us.  Those who observe our lives and who see the correspondence between the Word of God and our witness praise God and seek to share the Life given to us in Baptism.

In these days, we are reminded of our responsibility to open our ears and our mouths to speak the Truth in Love.  Our children especially deserve to see a coherent witness.  Parents must live the Faith they have promised to share with their children.  Church leaders must be clear signs of the power of God’s Word by a witness of life that is evident inside the Church and beyond.

May the Lord Himself soon touch our ears to receive His Word and our mouths to proclaim His Faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father.