February 13, 2025
Thursday of the Fifth Week in
Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 332
Reading 1
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
R. (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
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021325.cfm
Commentary on
Genesis 2:18-25
We continue the story of the creation of Man. The Man, here
clearly understood as male, is still alone on the earth with only the plant
life which had been given to him in the Garden.
Now once more, from the soil of the earth, God brings into
being all the animals and birds. They are brought to the Man who gives names to
them all, a sign that he is responsible for them and is over them:
… and whatever the man called every living creature, that
was its name.
But the Man still needed “a helper as his partner”. The
animals and birds could not fill that role. Without female companionship and a
partner in reproduction, the Man could not fully realise his humanity and the
command to increase and multiply.
The Man was put into a deep sleep and, as he slept, one of
his ribs was removed and the gap covered with flesh. The rib, in its turn, was
formed into a Woman, and God then brought her to the Man.
On seeing her the Man is delighted and bursts into song:
This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.
Note also here, there is a play on the similar-sounding
Hebrew words ishsha (‘woman’) and ishah (‘her
man’). The writer then reflects that:
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and
clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.
They become literally “one flesh”. Classical Hebrew has no
specific word for ‘body’. The sacred writer also stresses the fact that
conjugal union is willed by God. We have here a beautiful image of marriage,
one that has been experienced again and again. Often, it is only when the union
is broken by the death of one partner that the closeness of the union is fully
realised.
As a final comment, the writer says that, though naked, they
“were not ashamed”. This is a sign of their innocence. Nakedness is still a
source of shame in our modern world. We are still uncomfortable with nudity.
One by-product of this discomfort is pornography, watched in
darkness or read in secret. And there is the exploitation of nudity, where
people are reduced to being objects of sexual desire, or reduced to objects of
contempt and ridicule. Yet, artists have been constantly enthralled by the
beauty of the human body in its natural state, and have created some of the
most beautiful creations in painting and sculpture.
The story of the creation of Woman as ‘helpmate’ to the Man
also reminds us that perhaps the most ecstatic experience of human living is
when a couple, passionately bonded body to body, express their love for each
other in a way that cannot be surpassed. Here, body, mind and spirit fuse in
one perfect expression of union. Indeed it is not good that a man or a woman
“should be alone”.
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Commentary on Mark
7:24-30
Having challenged some of the religious principles of the
Pharisees and scribes, Jesus now pointedly goes into gentile territory. The
next three stories take place in non-Jewish areas. Why did Jesus go to the city
of Tyre on the Mediterranean coast? It may have been to give him some breathing
space from the crowds which pressed in on him everywhere. Later, he will move
on to Sidon, and then eastwards by way of the Sea of Galilee to the area known
as Decapolis (Ten Towns). All of these places were dominated by Gentiles.
Because the people there recognised his healing powers, he ministered to them
also.
We are told that he entered a house in Tyre and did not want
to be recognised. Why was this? Because his mission was only to his own people?
Because people without faith only saw in Jesus a wonder worker? Nevertheless,
he was already too well known even here to escape notice. His fame had spread
even to these places.
It is then that a gentile woman came to him. She was a
Greek, but Syro-Phoenician by birth. She prostrated herself before Jesus and
begged him to exorcise the evil spirit in her daughter. Jesus’ answer seems
somewhat strange and out of character:
Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take
the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.
Jesus’ words suggest an image where the children of the
family are fed first, and then the leftovers are given to the dogs under the
table. In so speaking, Jesus indicates the prior claim of the Jews to his
ministry. In fact, we see this, too, in the missionary work of Paul. Whenever
he arrived in a town for the first time, he always went to the Jewish synagogue
first to preach the message of Christ, and only later to the Gentiles. Because
of the shared tradition of Jews and Christians, they were the obvious people to
hear the message first.
Jews (and also Muslims) avoided dogs as unclean animals.
They were unclean because they ate all kinds of things indiscriminately. The
name ‘dogs’ was sometimes applied by Jews to Gentiles, and for the same reason.
It is likely that the woman would be aware of this disparaging title.
It is also important to sense the tone in which Jesus spoke,
and this is indicated by the reply of the woman. It is done in a mood of
friendly banter. This is clear from the immediate response of the woman:
Sir [also translated ‘Lord’], even the dogs
under the table eat the children’s crumbs.
In other words, they do not wait until the children are
finished eating. They eat simultaneously, even though they only get scraps. Her
powerful faith is immediately rewarded and her daughter is healed.
This is a story anticipating the faith of future Gentiles
who will become Christians. Let us pray that such faith may be ours also. We
know that Jesus excludes absolutely no one from his mercy and healing power.
Both as individuals and communities, may we too be as inclusive as possible in
our relationships.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/
Thursday, February
13, 2025
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father,
watch over your family and keep us safe in your care, for
all our hope is in you. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Gospel Reading -
Mark 7: 24-30
Jesus left that place and set out for the territory of Tyre.
There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there; but he
could not pass unrecognized. At once a woman whose little daughter had an
unclean spirit heard about him and came and fell at his feet. Now this woman
was a gentile, by birth a Syro-Phoenician, and she begged him to drive the
devil out of her daughter. And he said to her, 'The children should be fed
first, because it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to
little dogs.' But she spoke up, 'Ah yes, sir,' she replied, 'but little dogs
under the table eat the scraps from the children.' And he said to her, 'For
saying this you may go home happy; the devil has gone out of your daughter.' So
she went off home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.
Reflection
In today’s Gospel we see how Jesus is attentive to a foreign
woman, belonging to another race and to another religion, even though this was
forbidden by the religious law of that time. At the beginning Jesus did not
want to help her, but the woman insists and obtains what she wanted: the cure
of her daughter. Jesus is trying to open the mentality of the disciples and of
the people beyond the traditional vision. In the multiplication of the loaves,
he had insisted on sharing (Mk 6: 30-44), he had declared all food pure (Mk 7:
1-23). In this episode of the Canaanite woman, he exceeds, goes beyond the
frontiers of the national territory, and accepts a foreign woman who did not
belong to the people and
with whom it was forbidden to speak. These initiatives of
Jesus, which come from his experience of God the Father, were foreign to the
mentality of the people of that time; Jesus helps the people to get out of
their way of experiencing God in life.
• Mark 7: 24: Jesus
gets out of that territory. In the Gospel yesterday (Mk 7: 14-23) and of the
day before (Mc Mk 7: 1-13), Jesus had criticized the incoherence of the
“Tradition of the Ancients” and had helped the people and the disciples to get
out of the prison of the laws of purity. Here, in Mark 7: 24, he leaves Galilee.
He seems to want to get out from the prison of the territory and of the race.
Finding himself outside, he does not want to be recognized. But his fame had
reached there before. People had recourse to Jesus.
• Mark 7: 25-26: The
situation. A woman arrives close to Jesus and begins to ask for help for her daughter
who is sick. Mark says explicitly that she belongs to another race and to
another religion. That means that she was a pagan. She throws herself at the
feet of Jesus and begins to plead for
the cure of her daughter who was possessed by an unclean spirit. For the pagans
it was not a problem to go to Jesus. But for the Jews to live with pagans was a
problem!
• Mark 7: 27: The
response of Jesus. Faithful to the norms of his religion, Jesus says that it is
not convenient to take the bread of the children and give it to little dogs!
This was a hard phrase. The comparison came from the life in the family. Up
until now, children and dogs are numerous especially in poor neighborhoods.
Jesus affirms one thing: no mother takes away the bread from the mouth of her
children to give it to the dogs. In this case the children were the Hebrew
people and the little dogs, the pagans. At the time of the Old Testament, because of rivalry among
the people, the people used to call other people “dogs” (1 S 17: 43). In the
other Gospels, Jesus explains the reason for his refusal: “I have been sent
only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel!” (Mt 15: 24). That is: “The
Father does not want me to take care of this woman!”
• Mark 7: 28: The
reaction of the woman. She agrees with Jesus, but she extends the comparison
and applies it to her case: “Jesus, it is true, but the little dogs also eat
the crumbs that fall from the table of the children!” It is as if she said: “If
I am a little dog, then I have the right of little dogs, that is: the
crumbs that fall from the table belong to me!” She simple
draws conclusions from the parable that Jesus had told and shows that even in
the house of Jesus, the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table of
the children. And in the “house of Jesus,” that is, in the Christian community,
the
multiplication of the bread for the children was so abundant
that there were twelve baskets full left over (Mk 6: 42) for the “little dogs,”
that is, for her, for the pagans!
• Mark 7: 29-30: The
reaction of Jesus: “Because of what you have said, go. The devil has gone out
of your daughter!” In the other Gospels it is made more explicit: “Great is
your faith! May it be done as you wish!” (Mt 15: 28). If Jesus accepts the
request of the woman, it is because he understands that now the Father wanted
him to accept her request. This episode helps to understand something of the
mystery which envelopes the person of Jesus and his life with the Father.
Observing the reactions and the attitudes of the persons, Jesus discovers the
will of the Father in the events of life. The attitude of the woman opens a new
horizon in the life of Jesus. Thanks to her, he discovers better the project of
the Father for all those who seek life and to liberate themselves from the
chains which imprison their energy. Thus, throughout the pages of the Gospel of
Mark, there is a growing opening toward the
people. In this way, Mark leads the readers to open
themselves before the reality of the world which surrounds them, and to overcome the preconceptions
which prevented a peaceful living together among the people. This opening
toward pagans appears very clearly in the final order given by Jesus to the
disciples, after his Resurrection: “Go out to the whole world, proclaim the
Gospel to all creation“ (Mk 16: 15).
Personal Questions
• Concretely, what do
you do to live peacefully with persons of other Christian Churches? In the
neighborhood where you live, are there persons of other religions? Which? Do
you normally speak with persons of other religions?
• Which is the
opening that this text demands from us today, in the family and in the
community?
Concluding Prayer
Blessed are those who keep to what is just, whose conduct is
always upright!
Remember me, Yahweh, in your love for your people. Come near
to me with your saving power. (Ps 106: 3-4)
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