And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment\u00a0and begged him to lay his hand on him. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\nIt is interesting to note that the laying on of hands is not mentioned in the Old Testament. However, it is extremely common in the New Testament.<\/p>\n
The Greek word behind “speech impediment”<\/span><\/em> is “mogilalon”<\/span><\/em>. This word is found in the Bible in only one other place, the Greek (Septuagint) version of our First Reading. It’s clear Mark has the Isaiah passage in mind: “Here is your God<\/span>, he comes with vindication”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nHe took him off by himself away from the crowd. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\nJesus takes the man away from the crowd. This was probably an attempt to keep the healing quiet:<\/p>\n
He takes the deaf and dumb\u00a0man who was brought to Him apart from the crowd, that He might not do\u00a0His divine miracles openly<\/span>; teaching us to cast away vain glory<\/span> and\u00a0swelling of heart, for no one can work miracles as he can, who loves\u00a0humility and is lowly in his conduct. <\/em>–\u00a0Pseudo-Chrys., Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.<\/span><\/p>\nHe put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; \u00a0…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nThis is extremely sacramental. Jesus could have just healed the man with a word, but instead He chose to use material things in this healing.<\/p>\n
But He puts His fingers into his\u00a0ears, when He might have cured him with a word<\/span>, to shew that His body,\u00a0being united to Deity, was consecrated by Divine virtue<\/span>, with all that\u00a0He did. For since on account of the transgression of Adam, human nature\u00a0had incurred much suffering<\/span> and hurt in its members and senses, Christ\u00a0coming into the world shewed the perfection of human nature<\/span> in Himself,\u00a0and on this account opened ears, with His fingers, and gave the power\u00a0of speech by His spittle<\/em>\u00a0–\u00a0Pseudo-Chrys., Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe Spirit is called the finger of God<\/span>. When the Lord puts his fingers into the ears of the deaf mute, he was opening the soul of man to faith through the gifts of the Holy Spirit<\/span>“<\/em> –\u00a0Gregory the Great\u00a0(540-604 AD)<\/span><\/p>\nThat He might shew that all the members of His sacred body are divine and holy<\/span>, even the spittle which loosed the string of the tongue. For the spittle is only the superflous moisture of the body, but in the Lord, all things are divine<\/span>.<\/em> – Theophylact<\/span><\/p>\n…then he looked up to heaven and groaned, …<\/em><\/em><\/span><\/p>\nHe looked up to heaven, that He might teach us that thence is to be procured speech for the dumb<\/span>, hearing for the deaf, health for all who are sick. And He sighed, not that it was necessary for Him to be any thing from His Father with groaning, for He, together with the Father, gives all things to them who ask, but that He might give us an example of sighing<\/span>, when for our own errors and those of our neighbours, we invoke the guardianship of the Divine mercy<\/span>.<\/em> – St. Bede<\/span><\/p>\nHe at the same time also groaned, as taking our cause upon Himself and pitying human nature, seeing the misery into which it had fallen<\/span>.<\/em> – Pseudo-Chrys., Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.<\/span><\/p>\n…and said to him, “Ephphatha!”– that is, “Be opened!” —<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nThe word “Ephphatha”<\/span><\/em> is Aramaic. As we mentioned last week, the presence of translations in the text indicates that Mark’s Gospel is intended for a Gentile audience.<\/p>\n…And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nIsaiah’s\u00a0prophecy (First Reading) is fulfilled.<\/p>\n
He ordered them not to tell anyone.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nThere are a few possible reasons for Jesus’ secrecy:<\/p>\n
1. Jesus didn’t want to develop a sensationalist reputation.<\/p>\n
2. Jesus wanted to avoid the expectation that the Messiah would be political figure.<\/p>\n
3. Jesus didn’t want to stir things up until it was time for His Passion.<\/p>\n
By which He has taught us not to boast in our powers, but in the cross and humiliation. He also bade them conceal the miracle, lest He should excite the Jews by envy to kill Him before the time<\/span>.<\/em> – Pseudo-Chrysostom, Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.<\/span><\/p>\n4. As an example for us to follow:<\/p>\n
By this we are taught, when we confer benefits on any, by no means to seek for applause and praise<\/span>; but when we have received benefits, to proclaim and praise our benefactors, even though they be unwilling<\/em> – Theophylact<\/span><\/p>\nBut the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.\u00a0<\/em><\/em><\/span><\/p>\nA city, however, placed on a hill cannot be hid, and lowliness always comes before glory<\/span>.<\/em> –\u00a0Pseudo-Jerome<\/span><\/p>\nIf however He, as one Who knew the present and the future\u00a0wills of men, knew that they would proclaim Him the more in proportion\u00a0as He forbade them, why did He give them this command? If it were not\u00a0that He wished to prove to men who are idle, how much more joyfully,\u00a0with how much greater obedience, they whom He commands to proclaim Him\u00a0should preach, when they who were forbidden could not hold their peace<\/span>.<\/em> – St. Augustine<\/span><\/p>\nThey were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nThe is an echo here back to creation, indicating that Jesus has brought about a\u00a0new<\/span> creation:<\/p>\nGod saw all that he had made,\u00a0and it was very good<\/span>.\u00a0And there was evening, and there was morning\u2014the sixth day.<\/em> –\u00a0Genesis 1:31<\/span><\/p>\nThe age of which Isaiah\u00a0prophesied\u00a0has come!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 9th, 2012 In our First Reading this week Isaiah consoles\u00a0Israel, promising a time will come when wrongs will be made right, when\u00a0“the ears of the deaf [will] be cleared” and the dry lands be refreshed. From the very beginning of the Bible, a Saviour was promised, a Messiah who would heal the rupture between<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1494,2969,1493,402,1217,595],"class_list":["post-13745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sunday-lectionary","tag-deaf","tag-featured","tag-frightened","tag-isaiah","tag-messiah","tag-moses"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13745"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56557,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13745\/revisions\/56557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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