Friends, welcome to Word on Fire, Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an

apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization, using media both old and

new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with

Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring

the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite

you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each one of us. Peace be with you. Friends are

gospel for today is taken from the seventh chapter of the great gospel of Mark.

It has to do with Jesus' healing of a deaf man who also has a speech impediment.

Now as always with such stories we have to look at the surface and the depth.

Jesus is indeed performing a physical miracle. He was a physical healer. One of the

major reasons why people originally paid attention to him, why they followed him,

was his reputation as a healer. So this story reflects undoubtedly a real event

in the ministry of Jesus. But as St. Augustine said, since Jesus is the Word

made flesh, every one of his actions is also a word. That means every one of his

actions should also be read symbolically so as to uncover a deeper spiritual

meaning. And so we read this story on the surface and at the depth. What do we

see now as we try to decipher the spiritual significance of this story? Well as

the narrative commences, Jesus is making his way into the decopolis. That just

means ten cities in Greek. That was a region on the southeast side of the sea

of Galilee, the ten cities that were very Hellenistic or very Greek in

orientation. They were cities that were a mixture if you will of a Greek and

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