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.

When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not ­entirely with the Lord, his God, as the heart of his father David had been. By adoring Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites, Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not follow him unreservedly as his father David had done. Solomon then built a high place to Chemosh, the idol of Moab, and to Molech, the idol of the Ammonites, on the hill opposite Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. The Lord, therefore, became angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice (for though the Lord had forbidden him this very act of following strange gods, Solomon had not obeyed him).

Jesus went to the district of Tyre.

The queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon’s fame, came to test him with subtle questions.

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.

Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the whole community of Israel, and stretching forth his hands toward heaven, he said, “Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below; you keep your covenant of mercy with your servants who are faithful to you with their whole heart.

This people honors me with their lips,/ but their hearts are far from me;/ In vain do they worship me,/ teaching as doctrines human precepts.

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there.

Thus says the Lord: Share your bread with the ­hungry,/ shelter the oppressed and the homeless;/ clothe the naked when you see them,/ and do not turn your back on your own./ Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,/ and your wound shall quickly be healed;/ your vindication shall go before you,/ and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard./ Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer,/ you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!/ If you remove from your midst/ oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;/ if you bestow your bread on the hungry/ and satisfy the afflicted;/ then light shall rise for you in the darkness,/ and the gloom shall become for you like midday.

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.