Today we have beautiful scripture passages from the Book of Genesis and from the evangelist Mark. Reflecting on the Book of Genesis reminds us about the origin of everything in the world. The book begins, “In the Beginning when God created heaven and heart.” It is a story of God’s creation. In this chapter, the second version of man’s creation was presented, “out of the clay of the ground, blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so became a living being.” God provided them beautiful plants, food, and animals to live in prosperity, joy and peace and human dignity until they disobeyed God.
In today’s gospel, there is a new teaching coming from Jesus. He wanted to be incognito in the district of Tyre. Jesus entered the house when a woman came and fell at his feet pleading to drive the evil spirit out of her daughter. The Gentile woman fell at Jesus’ feet begging for help, with humility likening to a dog seeking the scraps from the master’s table. Jesus says, “For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dog.” This is not an insult but a test of faith. While the evil spirit continues to inflict pain and suffering to her daughter, but this woman says, “Please, Sir. I hear that you have tremendous powers from God to heal people. Please heal my daughter.” Jesus commanded the woman to go. There she was obedient and went home only to find that her daughter was healed.
Jesus is deeply moved by the woman’s amazing faith. His heart is pounding with joy because He knows the great relief and freedom for the woman and her daughter would come to unfold. This is what we call the “personal encounter with Jesus.” Jesus knows so well that the encounter between Him and the woman with much faith will be remembered by his disciples who would also bring the Good News to others. Here Jesus is teaching us to be obedient and to be humbled. We should not avoid the sin of the sin of pride.
As we cooperate with God in the on-going work of creation, we must accept humility to further God’s vision for our own good. God is indeed greater than anyone of us here. I believe there are three important messages– perhaps lessons Jesus intended to teach:
1. Pursuing demands on behalf of the weak and afflicted requires risk-taking. We must be ready to face the consequence of humiliation. If ever we have to speak on behalf of those who are weak, let us face the consequence of helping them…
2. Doing good demands constancy, be persistent like the woman in the story.
3. Like Jesus, we must be open to and be willing to offer any kind of help. Those who are teachers, principals, and all authority figures must be open to requests from the weak and the despised. Let us expand our horizon to help others.
The Gentile woman in today’s gospel reading fight for healing for her daughter who is weak because the evil spirit tormented her. It’s an extremely important lesson for all of us. We must persist when we fight for justice because Jesus’ ultimate response to the woman gives us hope that we will surely win with Jesus.
God bless you.
Fr. Arlon, osa
