MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY # 301

For a woman as soon as she heard of him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, came in and fell down at his feet. For the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophenician born. And she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. Who said to her: "Suffer first the children to be filled: for it is not good to take the bread of the children and cast it to the dogs." But she answered and said to him: "Yea, Lord; for the whelps also eat under the table of the crumbs of the children." And He said to her: "For this saying, go thy way. The devil is gone out of thy daughter." And when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed and that the devil was gone out.
And again going out of the coasts of Tyre, he came by Sidon to the sea of Galilee, through the midst the of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring to him one deaf and dumb: and they besought him that he would lay his hand upon him. And taking him from the multitude apart, he put his fingers into his ears: and spitting, he touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he groaned and said to him: "Ephpheta," which is, "Be thou opened." And immediately his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spoke right. (Mark 7:25-35)

THE OMNIPOTENCE OF OUR LORD: The first miracle related, i. e. the curing of the woman of Chanaan's daughter, was worked by our Lord at a distance from her who was possessed, and by the sole power of His Almighty will. In the second miracle, the "Ephpheta" and its instantaneous effect remind us of God's great creative words: "Let light be!" and their instantaneous effect: "And light was."

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)