EPHPHATHA!

By any standard of the world, Nick Vujicic is a highly successful man: he’s a bestselling author, travels around the world giving motivational speeches, drives a custom car, has a beautiful wife and four gorgeous children. People of all ages and backgrounds clamour for his attention and want his help. Just a week ago, the Australian-American evangelist flew to Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv to bring hope to thousands of wounded Israeli soldiers. Looking at all he’s accomplished, it’s easy to imagine God has favoured him with a wonderful life.

Nic didn’t think so at first.

In fact, once upon a time, this highly successful man tried to kill himself.

You see, Nic was born with tetra-amelia syndrome. He has no arms, no legs; just two toes on the end on one lower limb.  Although he has an easy smile and a bright spirit, Nic couldn’t be a normal child or teenager or man. This was to be his body for the rest of his life. What was there to rejoice in? What was there to praise God for?

Nic had to deal with bullying, taunts, vanished self-esteem, and depression. Even his parents initially walked out on him when he was born because they struggled with grief and confusion over his condition.

Consider the Israelites returning from Babylon to Jerusalem: after years of wondering if God still cared for them, if He was going to leave them in captivity and depression, Isaiah enthusiastically urged them to have courage because God was coming to save them (Is 35:4-7). He painted a vivid picture of the wonders their Lord would perform, miracles that would heal disease, disability, and devastation. But the Israelites had to wait patiently. Their chastisement was for a reason, but it wouldn’t last forever. They had to trust that, no matter how long their trials, God was directing their lives, preparing their path, planning not only for their return to their beloved Jerusalem but for the coming of His Son.

Like Isaiah urging the Israelites not to give up, Nic Vujicic believes that God chose him to tell every person that they are too precious to Him and He will never give up on them. “I believe in God, that there’s a greater purpose and plan for each of us, but it was really hard as a teen to realize that,” Nic said. “It’s difficult having no limbs. You don’t wake up smiling every day. …your heart and soul have to mature enough to overcome adversity.”

Adversity was something the Israelites knew plenty about – they lived with it for generations, first in one alien land, then another. All the while God was teaching them, reshaping their stubborn hearts. Like He does with us. Each time we face adversity, how long is it before we forget God came to save us in the past, and start to doubt and worry again? How much more difficult is it when we go through longer periods of pain and trial? How do we continue to praise God then, or pluck up our courage to trust Him? When death, disease or devastation strikes and it seems to be a permanent way of life, can we still believe God is coming to save us?

Building our faith and patience isn’t easy, even when we see His miracles today, even when we have first-hand experience of His saving grace.  Perhaps because complacency and expecting miracles are easy habits to slip into.

Nic said his parents never gave him gifts except on his birthday and made him earn money by doing chores. “No arms or legs? Then you can run a vacuum cleaner with your chin and shoulder. They gave me $2 a week. By saving it, in time I could buy all the little things a kid wants. Now with my little foot, I can write, I can type 53 words a minute. If my parents had given me everything I wanted, I’d never be grateful for anything,” he said.

It would be easy to wallow in self-pity and lose faith. But the friends of the deaf mute in Mark’s gospel didn’t. They were sure Jesus would heal their friend, even though none of them could figure out why it seemed as if God had punished the poor man.

When he was 15, Nic read John 9, in which Jesus heals a man born blind. Jesus says in John 9:3 that the blindness occurred not because the man’s parents sinned, but ‘so that the works of God might be displayed in him’.

Nic said, “When I read that, I realised that just as God had a purpose for that man’s blindness, to use it to glorify God, He also had a purpose for me. On reading that, a wave of faith came over me, and I realised that while I was looking for an answer to why I was the way I am, the answer was in not knowing why.

“The blind man stood still in front of Jesus without any plan beyond trusting Him. I needed to trust Him in the same way. If God could use a blind man for His purposes, He could use me.”

And so Nic made it his mission to show the world a God who loved and redeemed and healed. “By the time I was 17, I wanted to tell others my story,” Nic said. “Each of us has a story, and it’s history – HIS (God’s) story. …I realised my pain wasn’t wasted if God could use me to help others.”

His pain wasn’t just physical. As James points out in this week’s second reading, we might have corrupt standards when we judge others (Jas 2:1-5), and in so doing, cause grave distress and harm. Nic has long experience with people rejecting him, looking down on him. Look around the world today: it’s easy to see prejudice leading to contempt leading to distrust, anger, violence… and the suffering of the innocent, the already-broken, those struggling to rise from a fall. Can we answer this question honestly: are we the cause or the comfort? Are we encouraging division or fostering unity? Even in a tiny capacity in the workplace or school, in our parish, in our neighbourhood communities, maybe even in our homes, are we applying different standards of perceiving people?  

Today’s a good time to ask this, before we welcome our Holy Father, Pope Francis, to our shores. James’ text highlights the poignancy of this event’s theme: Unity – expressing ‘communion and harmony among believers, both within the Church and in the context of society and family relations’; Hope – suggesting that ‘the journey will be a beacon of hope for Christians in the region, especially for those who experience discrimination and persecution’. Next week when we celebrate this momentous event as one Catholic family, will there be a nudge in our conscience telling us we’re only giving lip service to Unity and Hope?

Study the overarching theme of this week’s texts and you will see the clear message that God saves all, and that He wants us to be opened to see, hear, and speak with our hearts, not just with our eyes, ears and mouths. He wants us to do this with everyone, without prejudice, without hypocrisy. With kindness and consideration, Jesus leads the deaf mute to privacy. Without fear or disdain, Jesus puts His fingers right in the man’s ears and touches his tongue with His own spittle. How’s that for showing that He comes to redeem and heal, without favouritism or prejudice?

“Ephphatha,” Jesus says. Be opened. To God’s love and plans for us. To deepening our faith in Him. To waiting patiently, even without knowing why. To communicating with our hearts, not just our senses. To placing our trust in His time, not ours.

“Can you imagine,” Nic said, “if God had answered my prayers for healing as an 8-year-old? That might have been an interesting story, but it would have been forgotten about after a while and not really changed things.”

“Now I stand before people… with a full life and a beautiful wife… . We can’t hold hands, but I can hold her heart.”.

Now isn’t that exactly what our Father is asking us to do?

Article by Joyce Norma, HFC Blog Contributor