Today’s reading is Mark 7:31-37
Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus[a] charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
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Jesus truly does all things well. When He was on earth he did great things out of His great compassion, such as healing the deaf and mute man, and He continues to do great things through us, today. Oh, that he would whisper “Ephphatha” to our hearts today, that they may open!
Jesus charged the man and his friends to keep quiet about the healing, and yet they could not restrain themselves and proclaimed it everywhere. What more should we proclaim His works and saving grace to all, when He asked us not to keep quiet about it but to spread it openly…News this good cannot be kept silent, it is meant to be told.
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Judith Huang ’10 was an English concentrator in Currier House and now works as an editor at a newspaper in Beijing.