Thursday, February 12, 2026 - Thursday in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Kgs 11:4-13 and Mark 7:24-30]
Soon, a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about [Jesus]. 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 good 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. [Mark]
This incident, reported in more colorful detail in Matthew 15, comes after Jesus' criticism of, and rejection by, Jewish authorities. The message is clear enough from the context. The Gentiles who come in faith to Jesus will be welcome. This would reflect, as I have commented a day or so ago, the growth of the mission to the Gentiles, which St. Paul championed.
Other features are worth noting. Jesus' power is such that he does not have to go to the woman's house to heal the child. Furthermore, the persistent faith of the woman is the key to Jesus' response. We might remember here the incident of the Roman centurion in Matthew 8:5-13, whose words we repeat before receiving communion: "O Lord, I am not worthy...."
In the story as reported in Matthew, there is the additional note that Jesus' "followers" tried to silence the woman and even ask Jesus to do so. Pope Francis set a startling example in his efforts to reach out to those who feel they are excluded from the church, The question of the boundaries of faith arises and challenges all of us who are comfortable with our Catholic identity. If so, whom do we exclude? And why? AMEN
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