http://www.dailycatholic.org/11penhay.htm

Just a simple Ephpheta proves Christ's point.

    Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Comprehensive Catholic Commentary
by
Fr. George Leo Haydock


        Editor's Note: We continue with this special feature provided by John Gregory with the Haydock Commentary found at the bottom of each page of the Douay-Rheims Bible. We publish it here in conjunction with the Epistle and Gospel for the Sunday Mass, with the cogent comprehensive Catholic Commentary penned by Father George Leo Haydock. For the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost we see how St. Paul gives witness that only through the grace of God has he been able to accomplish what God has aided, elevated and cured of sin. That is the message of the Gospel indicating that the deaf and blind man represents the spiritual blindness and deafness mankind has contracted by turning from God and embracing the chaotic din of the world, the flesh and the devil which, ironically, causes spiriritual deafness and dumbness. Really dumb! Yet, with just one word from our Lord "Ephpheta" the man in the gospel is healed. So also by absolution in the Sacrament of Penance by a valid, truly ordained priest, can one's soul be similarly healed.


Epistle: 1 Corinthians 15: 1-10

1 Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand;

2 By which also you are saved, if you hold fast after what manner I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.

3 For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures:

4 And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the scriptures:

5 And that He was seen by Cephas; and after that by the eleven.

6 Then He was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once: of whom many remain until this present, and some are fallen asleep.

7 After that, He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

    Commentary on Verse 7 He was seen by James. The time is not mentioned in the gospels. (Wi.)

8 And last of all, He was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time.

    Commentary on Verse 8 As by one born of due out of due time; not born at the ordinary term, meaning after Christ's ascension. He calls himself so out of humility, abortives being commonly imperfect and less than others. (Wi.)

9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

10 But by the grace of God, I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all they: yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

    Commentary on Verse 10 I have labored more abundantly. He does not say better, or that he excelled them; and even as to his labors, he gives to the honor to God: Not I, but the grace of God with me. (Wi.)


Gospel: St. Mark 7: 31-37

31 At that time, Jesus going out of the coasts of Tyre, came by Sidon to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

32 And they bring to Him one deaf and dumb; and they besought Him that He would lay his hand upon him.

    Commentary on Verse 32 Dumb. The Greek signifies one that speaks little, or with difficulty. (Wi.) They besought Him. In the Greek it is, they beseech Him, which agrees so well with they bring, that we have every reason to believe that this was the original reading.

33 And taking him from the multitude apart, He put his fingers into his ears, and spitting, He touched his tongue:

34 And looking up to Heaven, He groaned, and said to him: Ephpheta, which is, Be thou opened.

    Commentary on Verse 34 Ephpheta, a Syriac word. Jesus Christ, in the cure of this man, uses many and various actions; but as of their own nature they are no ways equal to such a cure, they show: first, that the cure was miraculous; and secondly, the virtue, which His divinity communicated to His sacred body.(V.) We must not suppose that our Savior here groaned on account of any difficulty He experienced in working this miracle, but only from commiseration for the man, whom He was about to heal; as likewise to show, how very difficult is the cure of those who are spiritually deaf and dumb by sin. He was affected in a similar manner when He raised Lazarus to life, to show with what difficulty a man, dead and buried in sin by evil habits, can arise from that miserable state. (Dion Carth.)

35 And immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke right.

36 And He charged them that they should tell no man. But the more He charged them, so much the more a great deal did they publish it.

37 And so much the more did they wonder, saying: He hath done all things well; He hath made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2005.htm#article8

Article 8. Whether every man desires happiness?

Objection 1. It would seem that not all desire Happiness. For no man can desire what he knows not; since the apprehended good is the object of the appetite (De Anima iii, 10). But many know not what Happiness is. This is evident from the fact that, as Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 4), "some thought that Happiness consists in pleasures of the body; some, in a virtue of the soul; some in other things." Therefore not all desire Happiness.

Objection 2. Further, the essence of Happiness is the vision of the Divine Essence, as stated above (Question 3, Article 8). But some consider it impossible for man to see the Divine Essence; wherefore they desire it not. Therefore all men do not desire Happiness.

Objection 3. Further, Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 5) that "happy is he who has all he desires, and desires nothing amiss." But all do not desire this; for some desire certain things amiss, and yet they wish to desire such things. Therefore all do not desire Happiness.

On the contrary, Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 3): "If that actor had said: 'You all wish to be happy; you do not wish to be unhappy,' he would have said that which none would have failed to acknowledge in his will." Therefore everyone desires to be happy.

I answer that, Happiness can be considered in two ways. First according to the general notion of happiness: and thus, of necessity, every man desires happiness. For the general notion of happiness consists in the perfect good, as stated above (3,4). But since good is the object of the will, the perfect good of a man is that which entirely satisfies his will. Consequently to desire happiness is nothing else than to desire that one's will be satisfied. And this everyone desires. Secondly we may speak of Happiness according to its specific notion, as to that in which it consists. And thus all do not know Happiness; because they know not in what thing the general notion of happiness is found. And consequently, in this respect, not all desire it. Wherefore the reply to the first Objection is clear.

Reply to Objection 2. Since the will follows the apprehension of the intellect or reason; just as it happens that where there is no real distinction, there may be a distinction according to the consideration of reason; so does it happen that one and the same thing is desired in one way, and not desired in another. So that happiness may be considered as the final and perfect good, which is the general notion of happiness: and thus the will naturally and of necessity tends thereto, as stated above. Again it can be considered under other special aspects, either on the part of the operation itself, or on the part of the operating power, or on the part of the object; and thus the will does not tend thereto of necessity.

Reply to Objection 3. This definition of Happiness given by some--"Happy is the man that has all he desires," or, "whose every wish is fulfilled" is a good and adequate definition; but an inadequate definition if understood in another. For if we understand it simply of all that man desires by his natural appetite, thus it is true that he who has all that he desires, is happy: since nothing satisfies man's natural desire, except the perfect good which is Happiness. But if we understand it of those things that man desires according to the apprehension of the reason, thus it does not belong to Happiness, to have certain things that man desires; rather does it belong to unhappiness, in so far as the possession of such things hinders man from having all that he desires naturally; thus it is that reason sometimes accepts as true things that are a hindrance to the knowledge of truth. And it was through taking this into consideration that Augustine added so as to include perfect Happiness--that he "desires nothing amiss": although the first part suffices if rightly understood, to wit, that "happy is he who has all he desires."