bible
 
The deaf can hear and the dumb can speak.  
   
“All that he does is marvellous: he enables the deaf to hear and gives speech to the dumb! (Mark 7, 37)  
   
guérison The admiration of the crowd followed the healing of a deaf and stammering man by Jesus. Mark described it in concrete terms. “ In the country of Decapods a deaf man who was speaking with difficulty was presented to Jesus to impose his hands on him. Jesus set him apart from the crowd, put his fingers into his ears and with his saliva he touched his lips. Then raising his eyes to the sky, he uttered a sigh and he said “Ephetha” that means “open” and his ears were opened and at once he could speak freely and correctly…”
(Mark 7, 32-36).
 
   
This happened in the region of Tyre and Sidon known for their paganism. Jesus was not hesitating to visit people the pious Jews never visited or made contact with them. Then there was a man imprisoned in his mind by a noise coming from his ears and just able to articulate badly a few words.
Some persons brought this deaf man to Jesus who was passing by. Did they believe that Jesus, unknown to them, could do something for this man since he was important enough to gather such a crowd? It is not said in the Gospel. What were the intentions for those anonymous persons who presented this man to Jesus? Did they expect to see a miracle? The stammering-deaf man was likely just a pretext for them.
 
   
This man without a voice was taken apart by Jesus, in the silence of a one-to-one meeting. Probably Jesus wanted to respect the intimacy of this man and to make him at ease. For Jesus this man was a unique person, he was not somebody to make fun or who brings pity.
impression
 
   
Jesus used significant gestures to answer to their questions: He “put his hand on him” like the prophets who make gestures that everybody can understand. He opened his ears and he untied his tongue. What a surprise for the deaf man! The first words he could hear were the words of the Messenger of God, Jesus of Nazareth. We can guess that his first words were to say thanks to this powerful and discrete shaman.
Coming back to the crowd, Jesus asked him to say nothing to anybody. This reveals how much Jesus was not for publicity and for emphasis of his action as if he feared a misunderstanding by those who saw his miracles, he never showed any vainglory for them, for Jesus what matters was elsewhere.
 
   
Two thousand years after the event, we still say today “ you have to listen” How many, men and women, cannot communicate with the others, enclosed in their own silence, they believe that nothing can change, nothing is going to change, nothing should change.  
   
source jaillit However, one day, a friend or an unknown person helps them to wake up to a new understanding. In the desert of their life comes out a new source of comprehension. Somebody said “open your mind”, then they start to have hope, to be attentive and words they heard many times without understanding them, suddenly make sense, they will at last hear them and understand them, they are anymore deaf to these words.