Reflection for February 9, Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time: Mark 7:24-30

Gospel: Mark 7:24-30

Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. 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 food 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.

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Reflection:

Are you persistent when you pray before The Lord? 

A Greek woman went to Jesus to ask Him to drive out a demon from her daughter. What is very significant here is the woman is an outsider, not a follower of Jesus not even a Jew. But with courage and faith she went to Jesus for help, her mind was focused on reaching out to Jesus. 

When she finally was able to reach Jesus, she told Him about her sick daughter. Jesus was reluctant at first to help. But she persisted and she humbled herself before Jesus after which her daughter was healed. 

We all have our own problems that we carry in our hearts and we surely have brought these problems to Jesus. Let us not lose heart if we have not yet received a response from Jesus. Let us continue to persist, continue to humble ourselves before Him and untiringly beseech His guidance and help. 

The woman never gave up until she got what she wanted from Jesus. So we too must never give up we must continue to badger Jesus with our humble and persistent prayers. Often times we don’t get what we want from Jesus because we easily give up. Same as with our ambitions in life; we don’t get what we want because we give up. 

What if we don’t give up? What if we continue to persist and humbly ask the Good Lord to grant us our prayer/s? – Marino J. Dasmarinas