Mark 7:31–37
Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
Commentary
The two healings performed by Jesus in today’s Gospel took place in the pagan district of Decapolis and to the daughter of a pagan woman who was a Syro-Phoenician (7:24-30). The two healings are important in the sense that salvation is for all men and women and is not only for the Jews.
The Jews believe that when God took Abraham from his pagan family and elected him to be the father of a Chosen People from whom God’s blessing would come for all nations (Genesis 12:1-14). This is the historic beginning of salvation for mankind. This is also a very vague generic promise. And this blessing eventually became crystallized in the Messiah. It was he who would introduce the messianic age of which the prophets so often had spoken, and it was in him that all peoples, Jews and Gentiles, would find their true blessing.
Therefore, it was right and fitting that Christ should proclaim his kingdom and his Gospel among the Jews and in their promised land. Those who would accept him and his message would later spread the good news among the Gentile nations. In fact, this is what happened. Jesus’ apostles and St. Paul and other faithful disciples having done their best for their fellow Jews first, then some of them left Palestine and carried the good news of the Incarnation to the pagan peoples of the then known world. It was surly from the Jews that salvation came to us Gentiles, because we are Jews spiritually.
From today’s Gospel, we should note that while Jesus reserved his preaching to the Jews according to God’s plan, he visited some of the Gentile lands bordering on Palestine – Tyre, Sidon, Phoenicia, the Decapolis – and worked some miracles there. However, he did not preach to them.
Jesus’ going into the pagan lands and performed healings to peoples in there are very important events. This is because while Jesus was fulfilling the divine plan when he restricted his preaching to the Jews, he did not ignore the faith of the people of the places who asked for a miracle and their enthusiastic reaction to Jesus’ power when he did what they requested. Jesus was indeed interested in Gentiles and showed his compassion for them by working miracles for them. He later gave a command to his apostles to bring his Gospel to all nations (Mark 16:16). He cared every human being. Today’s Gospel tells us this short episode in pagan land in his public life in Palestine.
Being Gentiles, we have much to thank God the Father, Christ and the good Jews who preached the Gospel to our ancestors. God though of us from all eternity and the Incarnation was his way of giving a truly satisfying meaning to the life of man. It has given us a new status in life, a new purpose and an end worth every effort we can muster to gain. Let us make full use of the divine gift of salvation by living according to its teaching all the days of our lives. Amen.