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Commentaries
English
Mark
  
14. Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician Woman
(Mark 7:24-30)
24From there He arose and went to the region of tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.25For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.26The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.27But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”28And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”29Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”30And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.


Man without God, sometimes behaves like an animal, filled with lusts and hatred. On the contrary, God created us first in the image of his glory, and made his love a measure for our life. But where man leaves God and opens himself to unclean, haughty spirits, there he satisfies his natural body with unclean thoughts. All evil desires possess and prompt him to do what he does not want to that he becomes like a dangerous, yelping, snappish dog.
An educated man could not believe it in himself until he had seen polite people behaving like pigs in their lusts, and like wild beasts in deadly wars.
Jesus came to Lebanon fleeing from the Jews who tried to kill him because he clarified to them that without a new heart they would fall to impurity and judgment. God sent his Son first to the sinful, reprobate Jews, according to his promise to their fathers. But when the followers of the Torah in their majority refused Christ’s call, crucified him, and became hardened against the Holy Spirit, then God opened the door of salvation to the Gentiles and called all the nations to his fold.
A poor Lebanese woman believed in Jesus’ power and mighty love. She confessed his glory, and worshiped to him. As other people, her heart was unclean, but guided by the Holy Spirit, she became broken to her pride before Christ, and more humble than humanity could think. She agreed with most humility to the example of Jesus, and did not refuse his harmful word. Seeing immediately that those chosen from the Gentiles were prepared before the Jews to receive the kingdom of God, and that the Holy Spirit threw to dust whoever prepared for salvation in the Gentiles, also responding with the woman’s faith, He commanded the evil spirit to go out of her suffering daughter.
Do you know the importance of those moments in the history of international salvation? The Lebanese woman is one of the advanced people of the Gentiles in the knowledge of the true God. She had paved the way to the dwelling of the power of God in us. Do you humble yourself as she did?
Today, Christ is spread all around the world. Whoever confesses his hidden sin, and declares his unclean manners before God, becomes filled with eternal life, and joins the family of God. All those who believe in Christ, Jews or Gentiles, live today in the new covenant where Christ accepts all the lost and the unclean, purifies them with his blood, and fills them with the divine love and the power of peace. Are you growing up Spiritually, or are you becoming short of faith?

Prayer
O Father, we confess being in our hearts like beasts led to anger and hatred to others. Forgive us the evil, which dwells in us, and fill us with the love, purity, and patience of your Son that we may forgive all the people at all times, and consider ourselves the smallest in the fellowship of brothers. Cure our friends and relatives of their pride that unclean thoughts may go out of them and your Holy Spirit may dwell in them. Amen.
Question
What is the significance of Jesus’ miracle in reply to the faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman?