The Syrophoenician Woman's Faith

February 11, 2021, Thursday
FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES (White)
(WORLD DAY OF THE SICK)
CYCLE B - YEAR I
RDGS: GN 2:18-25/ PS 128:1-2. 3. 4-5
GOSPEL: MK 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.

GOSPEL REFLECTION:

The depth of the woman’s faith is an example to us. She has not presented her daughter to Jesus, but in her eyes, the prospect of long-distance healing presents no difficulties. Jesus sometimes said that he met deeper faith among foreigners than among his own people.

PRAYER: 

Lord, I would like to talk to you as the Syrophoenician did, not hesitating to bother you with my needs, and trusting in your goodness and your sense of humor.