Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 13, 2026
Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis.
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.
He ordered them not to tell anyone.
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it.
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
“He has done all things well.
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
There’s a newly coined word, originally from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, that connects today’s gospel to the modern day. “Sonder,” according to the dictionary, is “the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles”.
I’d posit that we have lots in common with this deaf and mute gentleman in the gospel. He is unable to communicate with those around him, begging for healing to engender connection in a garbled, unintelligible, and confusing world.
In my own life, I certainly feel this way. While he physically cannot hear and speak, my roadblock is my mentality: I swim in the current of busy, stressful moments, caught up in the minutiae of my studies (and Notre Dame football), often closed off to empathy or patience because I cannot imagine living a life as vivid and more challenging than mine.
When I’m caught up in this mentality, I need God to instill that sense of sonder in me, to open me up to the nuances and complexities of others in order to be a better friend, citizen, and Catholic. Just like the deaf man, I need to be opened by God’s grace to love and communion.
The gospel today identifies the conflict at hand: do we trust God enough to “be opened”? Are we seeking to serve each other in the mundane moments of our lives? Jesus invites all of us to communion with each other and himself: how can we take small steps towards him—and each other—today?
Prayer
Lord Jesus: The people begged you to heal the deaf man with a speech impediment. At your touch and your word, he heard and he spoke plainly. In your compassion, Lord Jesus, help me to hear your word and to speak it with conviction. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Blessed Eustochium is a somewhat tragic figure, whose life was marked with suffering, but who seems to have borne all of her mental and physical distress with great love for Christ.
Eustochium was born in the year 1433 in Padua, Italy. She was the illegitimate daughter of a nun who had broken her vows. The sister bore Eustochium in her convent, where Eustochium could have lived her days in peace in a supportive environment.
The bishop, however, caught wind of the scandal, and reorganized the convent, presumably separating Eustochium's mother from her. Eustochium, whose baptismal name was Lucrezia, remained at the convent and attended the school for girls there.
Eventually, Lucrezia desired to enter the convent and join the order of sisters. Many of the sisters objected, out of distaste for her origins, but the bishop was on Lucrezia's side and she entered the convent a few years after her twentieth birthday. She took the name Eustochium, which was the name of an early Church Father, one of the disciples of St. Jerome.
During her short time as a sister, Eustochium experienced grave mental distress and the sisters were afraid of her wild outbursts of temper, mixed with her periods of melancholy. Eustochium cut herself with knives, which frightened the sisters, and they believed that she was possessed by a demon. They punished her in a manner which only hurt her more, and the bishop imprisoned her in a dungeon for three months. The townspeople wanted to burn her as a witch. Eustochium, however, clung to her desire to be a sister. She did not abandon her vocation. After four grueling years, she received her final vows. But the intense mental and physical distress weakened her health a great deal and she died on February 13, 1459.
Three years after her burial, her body was discovered to be incorrupt, and the bishop of Padua ordered a biography written and her body moved to a place of greater honor. Blessed Eustochium has been honored in Padua ever since. Let us pray to her to intercede particularly for those who are unwanted and for those who feel the afflictions of mental illness, depression, and loneliness.
Blessed Eustochium of Padua, young nun who bore terrible mental illness—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Eustochium is in the public domain. Last accessed December 5, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
