Gospel Reflection for The 8th day of February in the year of Our Lord, 2024

Gospel

Mark 7:24-30

24 And rising from thence he went into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon: and entering into a house, he would that no man should know it, and he could not be hid. 25 For a woman as soon as she heard of him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, came in and fell down at his feet.

26 For the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophenician born. And she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. 27 Who said to her: Suffer first the children to be filled: for it is not good to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the dogs. 28 But she answered and said to him: Yea, Lord; for the whelps also eat under the table of the crumbs of the children. 29 And he said to her: For this saying go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter. 30 And when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed, and that the devil was gone out.

The answer of our Lord to the Greek woman seems remarkably harsh. Why would Jesus, the God of all people of all races, compare the Greeks to dogs? Dogs, after all, were not highly thought of in Middle eastern cultures. They were not the beloved pets that we consider them now to be. Dogs in Jesus’ time were wild animals, scavengers who ate unclean things and who hunted in packs that could kill sheep and people. They lived on the edges of towns, living on scraps. This seems a horrible thing for our Lord to say to to a woman whose concern is her daughter!

Yet, when we consider this Gospel passage in the context of the first reading, the meaning becomes more clear. In the first reading, we learn of Solomon turning to worship foreign gods due to the influence of his wives. Even the most wise man, anointed by God to be the greatest of all the Hebrew Kings was tempted into grave error by the pagan women he married. Through the centuries, pagan peoples had been a constant temptation and persecution for the Jewish people. No matter how much God did for the Jews, they constantly turned to foreign gods. In punishment, God allowed pagan peoples to conquer them and enslave them. The pagan peoples that surrounded them had been like wild dogs, prowling about their cities and hunting in packs, taking from them what they could, a constant menace.

Even so, the Greeks were a powerful and sophisticated culture. For a Greek woman to believe in Jesus was a sign of a historical change. Under Jewish Law, both dogs and gentiles were considered unclean. A religious Jew would not touch a dog or enter into a gentile’s house. If they did so, they were ceremonially unclean and had to go through elaborate ceremonies before they could enter the Temple. Soon, as Jesus said, what was intended for God’s chosen people, His children, would be taken from them and given to the very peoples who been to them as dogs. Within just a few centuries, even the most violent and powerful nations in the known world would become Christian and embrace piety, charity, peace and learning. Those who had been as dogs to the Jews would become sons of God, adopted through Jesus Christ. The Jewish nation would be destroyed and the people dispersed. While our Lord’s words do seem harsh, they were a very plain appraisal of what was taking place.

Judson Carroll is the author of several books, including his newest, A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass Readings January-June, 2024. It is Available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPD1DC7Q

and

Confirmation, an Autobiography of Faith. It is also Available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47Q1JNK

His new podcast is The Uncensored Catholic https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-uncensored-catholic