08 Feb 2024 – Thursday of Week 5
08 Feb 2024 – Thursday of Week 5
International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking.
Optional Memorials: St Jerome Emiliani, d 1537, founder of The Clerks Regular of Somaschi for the care of orphans and the poor. Patron saint of orphans.
St Josephine Bakhita, 1868-1947, native of Sudan, reared a slave in Italy, became a Christian and entered the Institute of Canossian Daughters of Charity in Venice.
1st Reading: 1 Kings 11:4-13
Solomon’s sins are traced to the influence of his pagan wives; as punishment his kingdom will be divided.
When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not completely follow the Lord, as his father David had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.
Then the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my laws that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime; I will tear it from the hand of your son. I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom; I will give your son one tribe, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
Responsorial: Psalm 106
R./: O Lord, remember us, for the love you have for your people.
They are happy who do what is right,
who at all times do what is just.
O Lord, remember me
out of the love you have for your people. (R./)
But instead they mingled with the nations
and learned to act like them.
They worshipped the idols of the nations
and these became a snare to entrap them. (R./)
They even offered their own sons
and their daughters in sacrifice to demons,
till his anger blazed against his people:
he was filled with horror at his chosen ones. (R./)
Gospel: Mark 7:24-30
By her persevering faith, a Syro-Phoenician woman induces Jesus to cure her daughter
Jesus he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house but wanted nobody to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, for 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.” The 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.
Understanding between the Sexes
Women are centre stage in today’s readings. The pagan women married by Solomon led him into apostasy. By contrast, a pagan woman surprises Jesus with her faith and humble perseverance. These texts invite a reflection about the incluence between the sexes, in family as well as in the wider circle of friendship. Our identity as men or women helps us fulfil each other in various ways, and challenge each other to fulfil our potential. In the first chapter of Genesis the first woman and man complement one another because both are made in the image of God.
Many of the women praised in the Scriptures can inspire both men and women, just as holy men are an example for all. All the talents that are scattered and fragmented find their union in Jesus, for as Paul says: “among you it is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for all are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28-29). Bonding with Jesus in a radical remedy for any discord based from gender.
In his response to the Syro-Phoenician woman Jesus at first pays no attention to her request. It’s hard to explain his harsh reply to this pagan, except that he was avoiding the mistake of Solomon, who was led astray by foreign women. His first, gruff response is changed by the woman’s perseverance and love for her child. What he said about not throwing the children’s food to the dogs is countered by her mild reply: “but even the dogs under the table eat the family’s leavings.” This apt, humble answer overcomes all objections, so Jesus heals the woman’s daughter – a splendid example of faith and perseverance rewarded.
Once again, “blaming the women”???
That Jesus responded verbally to this outsider woman – rather than with a dismissive silence – surely suggests something very different to some recollection of Solomon’s mistake?
As we cannot know the tone in which he spoke of the children’s food and the house dogs why not guess that this was quizzical rather than harsh – aimed again at including an outsider in a dialogue about neighbourliness – for the sake of the Jews who were certainly also watching and listening?
Was this woman’s daughter not analogous to the man attacked and robbed on the road to Jericho? And did those Jews who were watching not now see Jesus acknowledging this woman as neighbour and including her in the kingdom of God? Why not believe that the reference to the house dogs was for the ears of those who would exclude non-Jews from the table, and that just by the very act of responding verbally to the woman’s appeal – and thereby engaging in a dialogue with her – Jesus was seizing another opportunity for breaking an elitist convention?
More than once do we see Jesus ‘reading’ people so accurately that he can predict how they will behave. Is it not likely that from the start he was impressed by this woman’s faith in him, and wanted to reward it – and to teach a dramatic lesson on inclusion at the same time?