A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark (7:24-30)
Jesus went to the district of Tyre.
He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,
but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed
and the demon gone.
(The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ!)
Reflection: God’s mercy is for all
When I first heard the words, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” I was taken aback. Surely, our Lord Jesus did not mean to refer a person or persons as dogs, right? But this is what we see in the scriptures from the Gospel of Mark.
It turns out that Jewish writers sometimes described Gentiles or persons who are not of Jewish faith as dogs or puppies. Catholic teaching states that “It is a figure of a household in which children at table are fed first and then their leftover food is given to the dogs under the table to acknowledge the prior claim of the Jews to the ministry of Jesus; however, Jesus accedes (or agrees) to the Gentile woman’s plea for the cure of her daughter because of her faith.”
The Syrophoenician woman’s nationality was from Syria and Phoenicia. Tyre is also known as “Tyr” without the “e” at the end. It is still located in the ancient areas NW of Galilee by the Mediterranean Sea. She was of the Greek faith, a Gentile.
Nevertheless, by agreeing to heal the daughter of the Gentile woman, Jesus shows us of God’s great mercy and kindness for all, that though His mission was first to minister to the Jews or the first “children” of God from the offsprings of Jacob and Abraham, Jesus still chose to heal the daughter of the Gentile woman because of her wit and her great faith.
As St. Paul would say to the Romans, “there is no partiality with God”, how blessed are we to be granted the grace to also be God’s children by adoption through the love of our Lord Jesus. First to the Jews, then to the Greeks, and then to the rest of humankind throughout the world. Our God is truly full of kindness, love and great mercy!
Action for the Day:
As Lent approaches next week, make time for quiet prayer and make a list of ways to share kindness, mercy and love guided by the Holy Spirit through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, then carry them out.
• May we seek to receive mercy and grant mercy for the ones who have offended us.
• May we fast from what is unnecessary that take up our time, talents and resources.
• May our minds, hearts, eyes and ears be made present while with our loved ones, and the ones who need to feel loved, seen and heard.
• And may we share of our blessings to the hungry, assist to find shelter for the ones experiencing homeless, and means of livelihood for the ones in need.
DEACON5 website link: https://deacon5.com/
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