Greetings on this the Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Genesis 2:18-25; Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5; Mark 7:24-30
Summary
The gospel story of faith today brings into focus the inalienable right to speak with the divine and to make your requests no matter who you are and no matter what the world says about you.
The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith.
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.
Story of Precedence and Faith
The story of the Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith is not necessarily easily absorbed by the modern American understanding of merit and choice. Some really struggle with honorific designation of ‘Chosen People’ or the horrifying designation as a ‘dog’. Definitely not the language of modern polite society used in the wrong context or given with denigrating purpose.
It does allow us to track the divine-human exchange by way of a particular people given particular tasks. The story of the Hebrews and Jewish people from antiquity (Abraham) to the Exodus (Moses) to the magnificent temple re-built by Herod the Great (time of Jesus). Peoples, tribes and persons bring to light the evolving story of the divine love caring for his people – and by extension – all people.
The Syrophoenician Woman brings us back further and more foundational.
We are all children of God. Our first reading (in series) has been tracking the creation story of Genesis. Today, in particular, the creation of man and woman. Bone of bone and flesh of flesh. One creation. And in our basic understanding of self – man and woman this basic fact: The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.
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.
The Syrophoenician Woman exercised her foundational right to speak with the divine, make requests of the divine and to wait patiently for the divine to respond. There is NO SHAME and there is NO LAW that precludes this basic right given by the divine to reach the divine will.
Testing the Worldly Logic
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."
Here we have the test of faith. Jesus is asking her… what do you believe? Do you believe the world’s designation… dog? She says, NO! And, wonderfully narrated, if we must use that name, then remember even dogs eat scrapes from the Master’s table. Brilliant!
There is NO OUTSIDER to the INSIDE of God.
Personal Reflection
The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame. We are naked before God. Period. End. There is NO SHAME in that. Rather, it is our liberation. Lord, I am naked before you, heal me as you can see what I cannot. Amen.
Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021325.cfm
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry
