We too often expect something extraordinary from Jesus. But he, on the contrary, usually does not expect anything extraordinary from us. Rather, He expects from us the simple and most ordinary acts of charity toward our neighbors.

Today’s Gospel tells us about the healing of a deaf man who, in addition to not being able to hear, also had an impediment in his speech. In fact, the text of the Gospel shows that these were not the only problems this man had. We are told that he was brought to Jesus. Literally translated from the Greek, we should say that he was carried to Jesus. The reason was either that he didn’t want to go on his own, or that he wasn’t able to walk on his own.

Our reaction, when confronted with the sin or holiness of others, can be contradictory. Seeing someone’s sin may make us feel better than them, but it can also help us to look inward and realize that we are not better than them at all.

In the northern European tradition, which has been carried over into the American Book of Common Prayer, the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost commemorates the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Jesus foretold this event in today’s Gospel: «For the days will come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another.»

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus exhorts us to make a choice between life and death, heavenly glory, and eternal damnation. Jesus says: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”