A Woman of Great Faith!

Thursday, February 8, 2024

1 Kgs 11:4-13; Mk 7:24-30

Today’s Gospel highlights the exemplary faith of the Syrophoenician woman.  

To some extent, this passage on the healing of a Syrophoenician woman’s daughter is considered controversial because Jesus appears to delay the healing, unlike other instances. 

Here, Jesus is also found using ‘harsh’ terms before healing the woman’s daughter. 

However, going by this one passage to judge the rest of Jesus’ life would be a gross mistake. 

This one passage, which we view as an exception, cannot become an example. 

Biblical scholars opine that though Jesus resorts to a ‘shock treatment,’ his intention is to present the pagan woman’s faith as an example of excellence and imitation to contrast the hypocrisy of those who prided themselves as Abraham’s children.

Jesus proves to them that the Gentile woman’s faith is far superior to their own. 

The fact that Jesus has a great appreciation for her can be understood from the way he compliments her faith in the end. 

If not for his open and inclusive mind, Jesus would not have done that. 

What must have moved Jesus to cure her daughter? 

Jesus finds a mother who looks determined to find the cure for her daughter. 

Jesus finds the gentile woman, leaving her paganism and idolatry to express her faith in him.  

Jesus finds a believer who returns home in faith upon his word. 

In sum, Jesus allows her to teach us that a person of goodwill can find Him if s/he seeks God. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar