“Ephphatha”, that is, “Be Opened”

The Church (Catholic and Christian) organizes a “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” annually from January 22 to 29. This event originated from South Africa in the 1950s. Umlazi – a small town in deep poverty on the outskirts of the big cities in South Africa – lacked schools, hospitals and suitable housing due to poverty and apartheid in the country. A group of well-intentioned Christian leaders realized that there was a need to build a constructive dialogue among everybody, in order to seek improvements in their living conditions. This slowly evolved into the yearly “Week of prayer for Christian Unity” organized by different Christian communities.

This year’s theme will be “Ephphatha”, meaning “Be Opened”. It was inspired by a passage from the Gospel of Mark 7:32-39. “Be Opened” refers to how we have to open up our hearts, and listen to God’s Word of Life. At the same time, we need to be more attentive and responsive to human suffering.

Lucy Shara is a black woman from a South African town called Durban. She was a vice group leader at a factory. One day she realized that a form of acute asthma was spreading among the workers and that it was caused by poor working conditions. She spoke with a higher authority about it and proposed to install a machine to purify the air in the environment. At first the company rejected her proposal. Lucy, however, felt a fire within her that gave her courage and kept her calm in the midst of all the discussions. She persevered and the air purifier was installed eventually.

We could have been “deafened” by our busy lives, or we simply could not be bothered, and thus missed out on all the opportunities to help people around us. “Lord, please open up our hearts, so that we can hear You calling through people around us!”