In today’s Gospel reading Jesus restores speech to a deaf man who had difficulty speaking. How joyful and grateful the man must have been for Jesus’ kindness and miracle.
If people lose the ability to speak, most would feel frustration and even anger. How does one communicate readily if one cannot speak? Surely one can gesture or write, but this is not easy. Similarly if one is unable to hear, he misses so much of life, especially of easy communication with others. Being able to hear and speak is such a great gift: so often we take this for granted. We should be grateful for these facilities from God.
As we consider Jesus’ miraculous cure of the deaf and dumb man, we are invited to reflect on how we use our gift of speech. Do our words help and build up others? Or do our words so often discourage and destroy others? Do we speak in joy and gratitude of the many blessings we receive? Or do we so often speak only of discontent and complaints? How often have our words disappointed and hurt others? Have we used our gift of speech to spread God’s Good News and Kingdom?