9 February 2012, Thursday
Gospel: Mk 7:24-30
The Healing of the Daughter of the Syrophoenician Woman
Jesus left that place and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not pass unrecognised. A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him straightaway and came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was a pagan, by birth a Syrophoenician, and she begged him to cast the devil out of her daughter. And he said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs’. But she spoke up: ‘Ah yes, sir,’ she replied ‘but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps.’ And he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go home happy: the devil has gone out of your daughter’. So she went off to her home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.
Reflection
How many of us will be enraged being called a “house-dog”? This Syrophoenician woman, a pagan who rejected God, humbly and honestly acknowledged that she was unworthy of Jesus. She swallowed her pride and turned to Jesus, the only One whom she knew could cure her daughter.
Being Christians, it does not imply that we are worthy and rightfully deserving of God’s favours. We are still sinners because our hearts are not completely pure. Today’s Gospel assures us that though undeserving, God will pour out His love and mercy upon us.
When you have sinned, do you humbly and sincerely ask God for His forgiveness and healing grace?
No comments:
Post a Comment