GOSPEL POWER | FEBRUARY 11, 2021

THURSDAY |OUR LADY OF LOURDES

5THWEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: MK 7:24-30

From there Jesus set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go — the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

REFLECTION

Today’s Gospel bids us to take very seriously the implications of God’s becoming incarnate in a given time and culture. This means that Jesus too, had to move out of the restrictive cultural mold he was born into by responding to the provocations of the Holy Spirit. Through the instrumentality of a foreign woman, the Spirit leads Jesus to a fuller grasp of the extent of his mission. Jesus’ initial attitude toward the woman manifests the typical first-century Jewish mindset dismissive of foreigners. To liken someone to a “dog” is a form of insult, for Jews regard the dog as an unclean animal. However, for the Greeks, the dog is a domestic pet that feeds on scraps which their masters intentionally drop from the table. This cultural difference in the way Jews and Greeks treat this animal becomes the woman’s winning argument, to which Jesus humbly yields, as he recognizes and welcomes the Spirit’s provocation.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, grant that we, too, may be sensitive to the Spirit’s provocations through people and situations. Amen.