• In today’s gospel (Mark 7 : 24-30) a pagan woman approaches Jesus and asks him to cast out the devil in her little daughter.
Jesus replies in a way that at first appears derogatory. He says: “The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.” But then the pagan woman answers: “Ah yes, sir, but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps.”
And for saying this Jesus tells the pagan woman that she can go home happy because the devil has gone out of her daughter.
It seems that we all have a place in life. Rank plays an important role in our day-to-day lives. Some are blessed to have their fill, while others can only feed from scraps. But we can see from this gospel passage that God provides for all, whatever our status, pagan or true believer.
The pagan woman is a concerned mother who brings her worry to the feet of Jesus. She shows faith in doing this. And Jesus accepts her as she is, a pagan woman looked down on by those he first sets out to proclaim the Good News to, the House of Israel. He is prepared to nourish her with the same bread, the Word of God, himself. He provides what she pleads for, the need of healing for her little girl.
I watched a video today that showed the visionary Mirjana speaking about the first days of the Medjugorje phenomenon. One thing she said stayed with me: “She (Our Lady) needed us the way we were.” The visionaries admit they were not chosen because they were the best, or the worst.
And which mother can ever say that she does not “need” her children. All mothers have a “need” in some way for their children, just as the pagan woman had a need for her child. Why else did she come to Jesus to seek healing for the little girl?
And Our Blessed Mother also has a “need” for ALL of her children, and accepts us as we are, whatever our state or condition, but she also sees the need to take steps to bring the healing of Jesus to her children.
A Medjugorje priest tells of the time when his country was at war. Many local mothers, many families, provided sons to fight at the front line. The priest relates that the mothers would pray every day for the safe return of their sons. But then the reality began to unfold. Some of these men would not return to their mothers in the same state when they left home. Some would come back wounded, some scarred and disfigured, some with missing limbs, some with psychological damage.
By now the mothers had started to accept that their children may return not in a way as they would want them to, but every day the mothers would continue praying for their sons to come home. This was their need – only for their sons to come home, whatever their condition.
Unfortunately, in life we do not always want to accept certain people into our lives, especially into our hearts, if they are not wholesome, if they are damaged. We may even describe them in a derogatory way. We may even consider them no better than animals and call them dogs when we observe their way of life and see them living off discarded scraps.
But Jesus provides. Jesus has need for them, and so does Mary – just the way they are. One word from Jesus – a scrap or a morsel – can be enough to nourish and heal. Love.
