Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Today Jesus moves out of the territory ruled by Herod and into Tyre, a mixed district consisting of both Jews and Greeks. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is a man of his time and place who saw the children of Abraham as elected by God and others not so much.
The Syro-Phoenician woman is unique among all the figures in the Gospels. She is the only one to win an argument with Jesus! Initially he refuses to drive the demon out of her daughter. He tells her that he has come first to the descendants of Abraham. The pagan woman grovels by comparing herself with a dog that might eat the scraps from the table of Abraham. She falls at the feet of the Lord. Deeply moved by this, Jesus grants her request and her daughter is healed.
The Syro-Phoenician woman serves as a good model for us as we move from winter Ordinary Time into Lent next week, beginning our journey to Easter. In this may we be like this humble woman who wins over Jesus in her persistence, humility and faith.
Perhaps it was this profound humility that moved him. In our era of politicians full of bullying, bragging and bluster, we might be reminded, on this Lincoln’s birthday, the self-effacement and unpretentiousness of our sixteenth president: “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.” Was this not, in today’s Gospel, the humble plight of the begging woman?
Like today’s national leaders, humility was far removed from many Jews of the first century. Many “people of the covenant” with YHWH were so arrogant that they dismissed all Gentiles as unworthy of God’s attention. Gifted as we are in the ‘new covenant,’ we need remember that we are made worthy because of the Paschal Mystery into which we were plunged in the waters of baptism. We are made worthy because of Christ Jesus.
Thus we have an advantage even the persistent woman lacked. We need not beg for lowly crumbs from the table. We are seated as guests of honor, not because of our own merit, but because we are baptized into the crucified and risen Lord, washed in the blood of the Lamb. If Jesus will feed “the dogs” imagine what he will do for us!
May the humility of the unnamed woman and of President Lincoln inspire us on our way, these last six days, to the sacrifice and humility of Lent.
—Timothy J. Cronin
*Image by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM