"Listen!"

Today we have the Gospel story of the healing of a deaf person who couldn't speak clearly. But, to judge from this week's Gospels, this man wasn't the only one who was unable to "listen" to Jesus. In fact, in Mark's Gospel, Jesus seems to frequently begin teaching by saying, "Listen!" Today's story gives us not just the "opening" of the man's ears, but also his being able to speak plainly. If we can't "listen" to the word of God, we won't be able to communicated it in an undistorted way. What a challenge!

A side note about today's Gospel: Mark goes out of his way to express the heights of amazement in the crowd's reaction to the miracle of healing. "He has done all things well!" (the Greek can also be translated "beautifully")--a possible allusion to the creation story we have also heard this week, when God "looked at what he had done, and saw that it was very good."

 

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