Thursday, February 13, 2025

 Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

 Genesis 2:18-25; Mark 7:24-30)        

 The Christmas 2004 tsunami took 200,000 lives. One wants to ask, How could God permit such a thing to happen?”  Such a question is not irreverent but only logical.  If God is in control and if God is good, then, it seems, He shouldn’t let such disasters take place.  One theologian takes the logic a step farther.  Knowing that God is the ultimate cause of everything, he asks, “Why does He do such things?”  In other words, this theologian is indicating that God caused the deaths of so many in a single event.”  It’s a shocking but honest conclusion. 

 Some of us might be equally shocked by Jesus’ remark to the Syrophoenician woman in the God.  It seems so unlike Jesus – so un-Christian – for him to refer to non-Jews as dogs.  Why would he say such a thing?  Perhaps he’s just very tired?  Or perhaps in the first century Jesus’ remark was not the insult it appears to be in our race-conscious society? 

It’s hard to say what Jesus has in mind, but perhaps it is better that we don’t try to defend the remark.  Rather let us focus our attention on the woman’s faith-filled response and Jesus’ benevolent will.  She is not stymied by the insult, if it was that.  Rather, in faith, she fires back.  “Lord,” she says recognizing Jesus as the Son of God, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”  So she humbly persists to request the favor.  Jesus, for his part, graciously consents.  He knows that as God’s emissary, he cannot deny help to those who believe in him.

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Memorial of Saint Cyril, monk, and Saint Methodius, bishop

(Genesis 2:18-25; Mark 7:24-30)

Today in this liturgy we celebrate four evangelizers.  We may be stretching both the term as well as the liturgy to render such a result.  However, it will be worth the effort if we reinforce our sense of being evangelizers as well.

The first to be mentioned is Jesus himself.  He is the evangelizer par excellence.  The Father sent him to the world to announce His great love.  In the gospel reading Jesus evidently needs some rest from the work.  Nevertheless, he heals the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter so that she too can give thanks and praise to the God of Israel.

Should we not see the Syrophoenician as an evangelizer?  She explains -- to Jesus in a sense and certainly to us – that God’s love was never intended solely for Jews.  She knows instinctively that it is meant for every human being.  She also shows us how God especially bestows His efficacious love on the humble of heart.

Today the Church remembers Saints Cyril and Methodius.  They were ninth century missionaries who overcame hardships and challenges to convert a part of Russia and Moravia to Christ.  Coming from Greece, their orthodoxy was suspect in the Western church.  German bishops were especially hostile to their efforts to work among the peoples of Moravia.  However, they demonstrated their faithfulness to established doctrine and used their scholarship to abet their work.  They translated the Bible into Slavic languages which assisted their evangelization efforts.

According to Fr. Stephen Rehrauer, a Redemptorist moral theologian, St. Valentine was a priest of Rome during one of the great persecutions of the Church.  He was arrested and spent time in jail before his execution.  There he converted the jailer’s blind daughter to Christ.  On his way to his martyrdom, he slipped the girl an envelope with a note reminding her to be faithful to her promise to love others like Christ.  He signed the note, “Your Valentine.”  When the girl opened the envelope and found the note, she received the gift of sight.  Fr. Rehrauer concludes that when people today exchange Valentine greetings, they might keep this story in mind.  He says that in asking one another to be their “Valentine,” they are not asking that they be their lovers, but their mentors.  They are asking that they teach them the love of Christ.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 2:18-25; Mark 7:24-30)

The story is told of President Abraham Lincoln taking a walk in the woods one night weighing a difficult decision. A group of Union soldiers were to be executed for falling asleep on duty unless he gave them a pardon. Along the path Lincoln met an adolescent on the ground crying. The lad had run away from home after his father in a rage killed his dog. The father had learnt that his other son was to be executed for cowardice and couldn’t control his anger. Lincoln counseled the boy to go home and forgive his father; meanwhile, he said, he would do some forgiving himself. The President also gave the boy his card with a note saying that he might visit him at the White House anytime. The boy went home and made up with his father. When he found out that his brother’s crime was falling asleep on duty, he went straight to the White House and took a seat outside President Lincoln’s office. At the end of the day, the boy gave the President’s secretary the card he had received and told him he had an important matter to discuss with Mr. Lincoln. The boy was shown in, told Lincoln what happened to his brother, and heard the President promise to add his brother’s name to the list of those soldiers who would be receiving Presidential pardons. Like Jesus in today’s gospel, Abraham Lincoln had the fortitude to change his mind when he realized that there is a better way to accomplish his purpose than he had previously considered.

In this Gospel according to Mark Jesus continually retreats to rest and pray.  Almost always, however, people feeling desperate need manage to find him.  In today’s passage a pagan woman requests Jesus to drive away the demon that is menacing her daughter.  Seeing his mission as reuniting the sons and daughters of Israel, Jesus initially rejects her plea.  Then he shows himself capable of moving beyond his self-imposed limits when the woman expresses her humble faith.

Abraham Lincoln has often been compared to Jesus.  Most dramatically, he was killed on Good Friday after devoting himself for the good of the people.  Lincoln himself governed the country with an unequalled sense of the gospel in mind and heart.  It is appropriate for us Americans to especially remember him one day every year.  It is even more essential that we consult the gospel every day of the year to give sure direction to our lives.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

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

Inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere are beginning to think about their summer vacation.  Spending two to three of recreation in another locale has become so much part of the contemporary way of life that months of planning and sizeable resources are given to the project.  In the gospel Jesus seems to be taking a vacation which explains part of his reluctance to assist the Greek woman.

Mark writes that Jesus hopes to escape notice when he enters a house in in the foreign city of Tyre.  He is probably worn out from intensive preaching and the never ending stream of sick persons seeking his cures.  Although he is not inclined to see more people now, he has a better reason for not going to the woman’s bedeviled daughter. He can honestly tell the woman that his mission is to Israel, not for the moment to the world.  But the woman refuses rejection.  She calls Jesus “Lord” and indicates that she would accept any assistance that he might give.  Ever merciful, Jesus acknowledges her faith by granting her daughter deliverance.

Faith proves to be a critical element in experiencing the Kingdom of God.  Faith tells us not to dictate completely what Jesus is to do for us although there is nothing wrong with some specificity regarding our needs.  More importantly, we are to trust implicitly in his love for us.  Almost certainly then we will experience wonders. 

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

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

Inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere are beginning to think about their summer vacation. Spending two to three of recreation in another locale has become so much part of the contemporary way of life that months of planning and sizeable resources are given to the project. In the gospel Jesus seems to be taking a vacation which explains part of his reluctance to assist the Greek woman.

Mark writes that Jesus hopes to escape notice when he enters a house in in the foreign city of Tyre. He is probably worn out from intensive preaching and the never ending stream of sick persons seeking his help. Although he is not inclined to see more people for a while, he has a better reason for not going to the woman’s bedeviled daughter. He can honestly tell the woman that his mission is to Israel, not for the moment at least to the world. But the woman refuses rejection. She calls Jesus “Lord” and indicates that she would accept any assistance that he might give. Always merciful, Jesus acknowledges her faith by granting her daughter deliverance.

Faith proves to be a critical element in experiencing the Kingdom of God. Faith tells us not to dictate completely what Jesus is to do for us although there is nothing wrong with some specificity regarding our needs. More importantly, we are to trust implicitly in his love for us. Almost certainly then we will experience wonders.