From the responsorial psalm: “The LORD gives sight to the blind; the LORD raises up those who were bowed down. The LORD loves the just; the LORD protects strangers. Praise the Lord, my soul!”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 7:31-37)
Again Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!”—that is, “Be opened!”—And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.
The people who bring the man to Jesus witness a miracle and then hear from Jesus that they are not to tell anyone what they have seen. Jesus then continues his earthly mission of proclaiming the Gospel and curing the sick. Astonished at his works, the people say, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” The first reading from Isaiah prophesies God coming to his people in this way: “Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.” And who does Jesus, the Son of God, come to the aid of. Saint Paul says it is those “who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.”
Father in heaven, in reflecting on your Son’s miraculous healings, help me understand that his miracles are not limited to the time of his earthly ministry but occur today in the lives of those who are rich in faith. Give me the strength and courage to continue to speak up about “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ,” that he has done all things well. Lord of all, you have time and space in your hands. Be present to me in the events of the day, in the people I meet, and in the Body of Christ you make present—body and blood, soul and divinity—in the Church.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.