In today’s gospel, “A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.” In Jesus’ day, deafness and dumbness usually went  together in persons, who are deaf from their birth. They could not hear, and so they could not learn to speak. But this man seems to be unable to speak, not by nature, but through the possession of a demon, who had taken away, or restrained the use of his speech, out of demonic malice. Continue reading →