From the Holy Gospel according to Mark
Mark 7:31-37At that time: Jesus, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And so on.
Homily by Pope St. Gregory the Great
Hom. x. Bk. i. on Ezekiel
What signifieth it that when God, the Maker of all, would heal a deaf and dumb man, "He put His Fingers into his ears, and He spit, and touched his tongue." What is figured by the Fingers of the Redeemer but the gifts of the Holy Ghost? Hence it is written in another place Luke xi. 20 that after He had cast out an evil spirit, He said: "If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you." Which words are thus given by another Evangelist Matth. xii. 28: "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you." By setting these two passages together we see that the Spirit is called the Finger. For our Lord, then, to put His Fingers into the deaf man's ears was by the gift of the Holy Spirit to enlighten his dark mind unto obedience.
That signifieth it also that "He spit and touched his tongue." We receive spittle out of the Redeemer's mouth upon our tongues when we receive wisdom to speak God's truth. Spittle is a secretion of the head which floweth into the mouth. And so, that wisdom, which is Himself, the great Head of His Church, as soon as it hath touched our tongue, doth straightway take the form of preaching. "And looking up to heaven, He sighed," not that He had any need to sigh, Who gave whatsoever He asked, but that He was fain to teach us to look up and sigh toward Him Whose throne is in heaven, confessing our need, that our ears should be opened by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our tongue loosed by the spittle of our Saviour's Mouth, that is, by knowledge of His Divine Word, before we can use it to preach to others.
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