Faith in Jesus
For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” (Mk 7:29)
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. (Mk 7:24-30)
What's so special about this pagan woman? It is the faith she has in Jesus as God, in the firm will to love Him even before she understands Him. Whereas, Jesus, who appears in this moment to reject the pagan woman, has affirmed that it is those who listen to His Word and put it into practice are truly mother, brothers and sisters for Him. Therefore, it is faith that saves us eternally and this is what Jesus teaches us in the gospel: it is the Lord we must trust evermore.
