In today's gospel reading, Saint Mark tells us about an excursion, the second one, that the Lord made through the region of the Ten Cities. This region was non-Jewish territory. The fact that the Lord went on excursions outside of Israel indicated that the blessings of the kingdom of God would extend to peoples not belonging to Abraham's family. By traveling outside Israel, the Lord prefigured the international dimension of the Church.

On his first excursion, the Lord met a man possessed by a legion of evil spirits, who lived among the tombs. This man is a symbol of humanity after the original sin. Humanity lived under the dominion of the devil, in the region of the spiritually dead until the Lord became man.  

The Lord expelled the legion of spirits from the man's body and sent them to a large herd of swine which rushed off a steep bank into the sea of ​​Galilee. The local people were afraid and asked the Lord to leave their territory. The healed man was sent by the Lord to tell the people about his healing.

When the Lord arrives in the Ten Cities region, he meets with a different reception than on his first excursion, when the local people begged him to leave. The people welcome him as a healer. Perhaps the testimony of the man healed on the first excursion helped change people's attitude.

This time the Lord meets a deaf man with a speech impediment. The healing of this man is among the most detailed descriptions of physical healing in the Holy Scriptures. The fact that the Lord heals this man in private shows the humanity of the Lord. This also shows that the Lord understands our unique needs and attends to our needs one-on-one.

Today's gospel reading is paired with a reading from the prophet Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah’s exultant promise was: “Then the eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf be opened; then the lame shall leap like a stag and the mute tongue sing for joy (Isaiah 35:5-6). This exultant promise refers to the joyful return home of the people of Israel after their exile in Babylon.

The connection between these two readings allows us to understand what Saint Mark hinted by telling us about the Lord’s miracle outside of Israel. He hinted that non-Jews too are now heirs to these blessings. Original sin disabled our spiritual capacities to see, hear, and relate to God. Original sin caused a severe communication block between God and humanity.

Thanks be to God for sending us his Son to restore us to the fullness of life, to restore our ability to see, hear, and relate to God. The Lord, through the sacrament of baptism, has restored us to the fullness of our communication with our God. By God’s grace we can hear God’s voice in our hearts, sing his praises, and proclaim his mighty deeds.

Let us humbly ask the Lord to open our ears to hear him more clearly and share the good news of salvation with others.