In this week's edition of "There's more in the Gospel than meets the eye,"
Jill Bevilacqua and Seàn-Patrick Lovett bring us reflections and readings for the
Twentythird Sunday of the Year. Listen:
GospelMk
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. He ordered
them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the
more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, "He
has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."