I have been contemplating going into ear bud sales. Seriously. Because I have four kids, who are all obsessed with at least one electronic device, and I am not kidding when I tell you that every day I am told, "I need new ear buds", or "I lost my ear buds" or "who took my ear buds", or "these ear buds stink", or "my ear buds broke". I have four kids, and that means I have 8 ears that are demanding to be plugged in at every moment of the day.
And I wonder.
What are they even listening to?
What is the message that is running straight into their ears, filling their minds, running down into their heart?
They think they are plugged in to something...do they realize that in truth, they are completely tuned out?
Today's Gospel. Have you read it?
Mark 7:31-37
People bring a deaf man with a speech impediment to Jesus.
"He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man's ears....then looked up to heaven and groaned, "Ephphatha!-that is, "Be opened!""
And now, touched by Jesus, this man can hear.
Now, with a single word, this man can speak.
I look off into the next room. My children, with ear buds clogging both ears, off in their own worlds, tuned in to something not really here, and cut off from the people that are sitting right next to them.
And honestly? I can not say I always know what they are listening to...Who they are listening to.
And I have a strong urge to take them away from the crowd, to bring them to Jesus, to open their ears.
How can we possibly hear God when our ears are crowded?
How can we ever speak to others of a truth we are unable to hear ourselves?
