Thursday, February 10, 2022

 Memorial of Saint Scholastica, virgin

(I Kings 11:4-13; Mark 7:24-30)

Solomon started his rule pleasing the Lord.  He asked for wisdom, not riches, and God gave him both.  At the end of his reign, however, his heart turns to pleasing his wives.  He abandons God for foreign idols. Today’s gospel tells of a woman who moves in the opposite direction.

The passage says the Syrophoenician woman is Greek.  It means that she is a pagan.  Yet hearing of the holy one, Jesus, she turns to him in her need.  She humbles herself beseeching Jesus to help her possessed daughter. To show that God’s mercy extends to the whole world, he grants her request.  Without so much as seeing the woman’s daughter, he relieves her of the demon.

When we turn our hearts to God, we will not be disappointed.  The effort requires humility and persistence.  God will reward us in ways we do not expect.  When we set our hearts on pleasure, we are bound to become dissatisfied.  Pleasures come and go quickly.  Pursued relentlessly, they will draw us away from happiness.