We are just short of the halfway point in Trinitytide for A.D. 2024, with the second and last reading from the Gospel of Mark. This week’s Collect is largely based on Archbishop Cranmer’s interpretation of a Gelasian Sacramentary original, with the final line modified in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The major theme is the mercy of God granted to an unworthy humanity, who is “not worthy to ask.” The editors stress in the final line the “merits and mediation” of “Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord.”
The epistle reading (2nd Corinthians 3:4-9) is another message from Paul to his most difficult congregation which struggled with the temptations of the world, especially beliefs lingering in that port city since its pagan history. A key line, echoing the Collect, refers again to man’s inherent unworthiness overcome only by the mercies of God.
My subject for today’s example of Christian art is based upon the Gospel reading, Mark 7:31-37, an account found only in the Gospel of Mark of Jesus’ unusual healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment whom He encountered in the Decapolis region on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. The timeline for the account is during the middle months of A.D. 29 during the second year of Jesus’ public ministry. The scene Mark describes was not often used in New Testament illuminations. The AIC image archice includes only two examples, a scene from a very large (48″ wide x 34.4″ high) 17th C. oil on canvas by Bartholomeus Breenburgh, from the collection the Louvre Museum, Paris, France, titled Jesus Healing a Deaf-mute. Another image is a mosaic in the Inner Narthex at Chora Church, Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey. I was not able to obtain a high-resolution version of that image, but you can see a photograph of it at Dreamstine.com by entering the file number: 36045098.
This week’s Gospel reading is discussed in Episode Five in the AIC Christian Education Video series, Trinitytide: the Teaching Season. My Podcast Homily for the occasion is linked from the Podcast Homilies page or directly: Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. It is discussed but not illustrated in the AIC Bookstore Publication, The Gospel of Mark: Annotated & Illustrated, which is available through my Amazon Author Central page.
As always, thank you for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!
Anglican Internet Church 
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