Our gospel today is taken from the great gospel according to St. Mark – Jesus healing a deaf man who has also a speech impediment. As all of these stories of Jesus we have to look at the surface and at the depth. Jesus is performing a physical healing, a real event. St. Augustine tells us that every one of the actions of Jesus should be read symbolically. What is the spiritual significance of this story? Deafness is a spiritual issue. All throughout the Bible we hear the metaphour of Christ’s speech. God said let there be light, God said let the earth come forth; God speaks to the prophets, etc. We need to be hearers of the word of God, to be listeners.

There are 4 different ways of listening:
1. Some people listen to Word of God, they listen to what the priest is saying but their minds are far away from here. It goes in through one ear and goes out through the other. They hear but they do not listen. If we were to have survey and ask people what was the gospel and homily about today?
2. The selective hearers, they hear what they want to. We love to hear the Word of God talking to us about love, compassion and joy, but when it talks about the cross and sacrifice and discipline, when it talks about forgiving seventy times seven, we don’t want to hear that.
3. We have those who will say this is great for some one else. I’d love that person to hear that. They do not make it relevant for their lives.
4. Finally we have those people who will hear the word of God and listen to it.

Our problem is deafness, we don’t hear. Speak Lord your servant is listening. St. Paul tells us that faith comes from hearing. This deaf man stands for all of us. We don’t hear because there are so many sounds and voices competing for our attention, we have the media, Facebook, Twitter, movies, music, and commercials. How can we hear the word of God if it is drowned out by so much competition? So many people are staying away from Church today and they are growing ignorant of the Bible – the Word of God. How many Catholics can speak the word of Go with clarity and confidence? When we are questioned about our faith can we respond with clarity and confidence? What does Jesus do? He took him away from the crowd. Reading this spiritually, one reason why we can’t hear is we spend too much time with the crowd, surrounded with the constant barrage of media social platforms and commercials. Jesus brings him to a new environment where he can hear the Word of God. This is what the church is. Think of the silence of a church building. He put his finger into the man’s ears. He is like a current of electricity coming from God to this man. God speaks to us through his Son and the Church. We are invited to be open to the Word of God, the sacraments, and the liturgy.
What is the key to be a true evangeliser, it is to listen, to be plugged into Jesus.