Thursday February 11

FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

MORE THAN CRUMBS

 

Introduction

            Why are men and women attracted to one another? Love is stronger than death and stronger than the bonds with parents. They become one chair, most in the chair of the child. Human beings are social, and need and equal partner, created from near the heart of man, “flesh from my flesh and bone from my bones.” And now the man can say “you, thou.”

            Despised pagans too are offered salvation. The doctors of the Law had called the region where Jesus worked this miracle a region of dogs. God lifts up the lowly who believe. Grace is no exclusive privilege for God’s people. The kingdom is also for pagans.

 

Opening Prayer

Father of all,
long ago you chose the people of Israel
to make your name known to all nations.

Your Son Jesus Christ, made it clear
that forgiveness and life are the share
of all who believe in him.
Make your Church truly a place of encounter
for all those who grope for you,
that all obstacles and barriers may be removed
and that the riches of all nations and cultures
may reveal the thousand faces of the love you show us
in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Reading 1: Gen 2:18-25

The LORD God said:
“It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him.”
So the LORD God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.

So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs
and closed up its place with flesh.
The LORD God then built up into a woman
the rib that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:

“This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called ‘woman,’
for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

(see 1a) Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Alleluia: Jas 1:21bc

Alleluia, alleluia.
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

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.

 

Intercessions:

–         That there may be room in the universal Church for the cultural riches of various peoples and for their manifesting the same faith in a variety of languages and forms of expression, we pray:

–         That we may open our homes and hearts to those who differ in many ways from us, that we may do all we can to integrate them into the human and Christian community, we pray:

–         That all of us may be concerned about those who are not here because they are estranged from the Church, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

God, our Father,
you set the table of your Son
for all who are willing to come:
for saints and for sinners, for the poor and the rich.
May we learn from your Son, Jesus Christ,
to give to all those who ask for food or love
not meager crumbs or leftovers,
but the food of ourselves,
as Jesus does here for us,
he who is your Son and our Lord for ever.

 

Prayer after Communion

God our Father,
in this Eucharist we have all been one
in Jesus Christ, your Son.
He died and rose to life for all;
his likeness is reflected
in the face of every human being.
May it become visible in all.
Let his face not be marred or divided
by our prejudices and fears;
do not allow your love to be less than universal,
but unite us all in him
who is our common way to you and to one another,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.

 

Blessing

May there be room in this house, that is, in our Christian communities, for all people, whatever their race or social class, their culture or education may be. May Almighty God bless you all, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

Conversion

Jesus was gaining recognition as a preacher and miracle-worker. He had a group of disciples who accompanied him and many more followed him. What could force him to change his plans and course of action? We seldom find Jesus changing his mind in the Gospels. Let us reflect on the freedom or flexibility of Jesus for changing his discourse or the way he acted when circumstances called for it.
Being in a position that involves power, be it in the Church, in the family or in our work places, we would love to see our desires as decisions are accepted and executed. To have the boss of a company reverse his decision at the request of an ordinary janitor or the parish priest to reconsider his plan of action at the request of his parishioners are not every day experiences.
Jesus’ response to the woman sounds inexcusably offensive. But, it wasn’t anything inappropriate in the Jewish world of the time. It perfectly reflected the attitude of Jews to Gentiles. Jews of the days of Jesus commonly referred to Gentiles as dogs. However, the refusal to respond to obvious human need seemed uncharacteristic of Jesus.
The foreigner woman’s love for her daughter challenges the assumption of Jesus. And Jesus changed his mind. The breaking-in of the Kingdom into the life of the girl was the result not just of the action of Jesus but of the faith and concern of the mother as well. Jesus seemed to allow himself to be subject to the conversion of heart that he demanded from his disciples. Conversion is so often a process of identifying our prejudices, and letting go of them, and of broadening one’s attitudes.
Today’s miracle story is a call for identifying our prejudices in order to overcome them. Today the Church remembers the Apparition of Our Lady to Bernadette in Lourdes. Many who were sick got miraculously healed at the shrine in Lourdes. Bernadette herself died while taking care of the sick. Today is the World day of the sick. Jesus set aside his prejudices and healed the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman. Blessed mother in Lourdes brings the message of caring for the sick. Let us not forget to be concerned and to care for those who suffer due to illnesses, especially in these days of the pandemic.