In today's portion of Mark's Gospel (Mk 7: 31-37) we see Jesus heal a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. After Jesus does so, the crowd exclaims: "He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak." Of course this is not the first or the last of Jesus' miracles. He has healed others, and will next go on to feeding the four thousand with seven loaves and a few fish. The miracles tell us much about Jesus, and that is part of the point of telling the stories. But they also are intended to get us thinking about ourselves, and our relationship with Jesus, as well. That is why the last two lines of today's reading are so significant. The crowd appreciates that Jesus does "all things well," and that includes removing the impediments we have to hearing and speaking. Those impediments didn't just exist in one man who lived 2,000 years ago in the district of the Decapolis. We have the same impediments, maybe not to the same degree in a physical sense, but perhaps to a greater degree in a spiritual sense. Do we let Jesus do all things well in us as well? Do we let Him open up our ears, and free our voices, so that we can truly hear Him and proclaim the Good News? If we allow Him to do so, Jesus will open our ears to hearing more joy in this world, more laughter, more happiness. He will also enable us to hear more people in pain, people in need of the message of God's love that Jesus proclaims. Our hearing can get so flooded with worldly noise that we miss the things that we truly need to hear-- the tiny voices of our children, the sadness that might be in the voice of a spouse or a parent, the anger that lurking in a comment from someone who has been wronged. Jesus wants to soften our hearts so that we can truly hear what our brothers and sisters are saying, not someone's spin on those voices, or some political conclusion. He particularly wants us to hear those who no one else hears, who are in particular need, who are alone, who are in pain or in prison or in poverty. And when our ears are opened and we truly hear, Jesus tells us to speak-- speak the truth, speak of justice, speak of salvation, speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. Hearing by itself isn't enough-- that's why in today's reading both the ability to hear and the ability to speak are healed. The people in the Decapolis begged Jesus to heal the deaf man with a speech impediment. What healing should we seek from Jesus, for ourselves and for those around us? Don't we all need to hear more profoundly, and speak more clearly? Do we trust Jesus enought to ask Him -- to beg Him-- for what we need? Do we truly believe that He "does all things well"?