Below is the text of Pope Francis’ weekly Wednesday audience, delivered on December 13, 2023.
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Dear brothers and sisters,
Today we conclude the series dedicated to apostolic zeal, in which we have let the Word of God inspire us, helping us to nourish a passion for the proclamation of the Gospel. And this concerns every Christian. Let us consider that in Baptism, the celebrant, touching the ears and lips of the baptized, says: “May the Lord Jesus, who made the deaf hear and the mute speak, grant you to soon receive his word and profess the faith” (cf. Mk 7:31-35).
And we heard about the miracle of Jesus. The evangelist Mark describes at length the place where this happened: towards “the Sea of Galilee” (Mk 7:31). What do these two regions have in common? The fact that they were mainly inhabited by pagans. These were not areas inhabited by Jews, but mainly by pagans. The disciples went out with Jesus, who can open his ears and his mouth, hence the phenomenon of muteness, deafness, which is also metaphorical in the Bible, meaning being closed to the calls of God. There is physical deafness, but in the Bible, he who is deaf to the Word of God is mute, and does not communicate the Word of God.
Even at the end of the Gospel, Jesus entrusts us with his missionary desire: to go beyond, to heal, to preach the Gospel.
There is another indicative sign: the Gospel reports the decisive words of Jesus in Aramaic. Ephphatha which means “to be open”, let the ears be open, let the tongue be open. And it is an invitation addressed not so much to the deaf, who could not hear it, but precisely to the disciples of this time and of all ages. We too, who received the Ephphatha of the Spirit in baptism, are called to be open. “Be open,” Jesus said to every believer and to his Church: be open because the Gospel message needs you to witness it and announce it! And this also makes us think about the attitude of Christians: Christians must be open to the Word of God and to the service of others. Closed Christians always end up badly because they are not Christians. They are ideologues of closure. The Christian must be open to proclaiming the Word and welcoming brothers and sisters. And that’s why ephphatha, this “be open,” is an invitation for all of us to open ourselves.
Even at the end of the Gospel, Jesus entrusts us with his missionary desire: to go beyond, to heal, to preach the Gospel.
Brothers and sisters, let us all feel called, as baptized people, to bear witness to and proclaim Jesus. And let us ask for the grace, as Church, to achieve a pastoral and missionary conversion. At the edge of the Sea of Galilee, the Lord asks Peter if he loves him and then asks him to feed his sheep (cf. vv. 15-17). Let us ask ourselves the question too. Let each of us ask ourselves this question, let us ask ourselves: do I really love the Lord so much that I want to proclaim him? Do I want to become his witness or am I happy to be his disciple? Do I take the people I meet to heart and bring them to Jesus in prayer? Do I want to do something so that the joy of the Gospel, which has transformed my life, makes their lives more beautiful? Let us think about this, consider these questions, and continue our testimony.
