Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Statue of Mary in
Friars' Cemetery
Mount Saint Francis, Indiana

Lectionary: 332

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

 

Saint Mark’s story of the Syrophoenician woman makes a fitting companion to the account of woman’s creation in Genesis. If the Lord thought he could dismiss this stranger with a rude remark he had a lot to learn about women!

In Genesis we hear, “It is not good for man to be alone.” And then, “I will make a suitable partner for him.”

I have sometimes heard the pathetic remark by lonely men, “We’re born alone and we die alone.” They seem to be addressing an existential loneliness that accompanies and challenges every human being. In our worse moods it is sometimes overwhelming. But I have to ask them, “You were born alone? Wasn’t your mother in the room?” 

“It is not good for man to be alone.” But many American women and men prefer to spend their later years in solitude. They can manage their cooking, hygiene, household chores, pets, shopping, doctoring, bills, taxes, banking, auto maintenance, and gardening; and also enjoy social and family connections. Some take on additional chores for their families, church, and other volunteer works. If they’re wise, they expect and prepare for the day when they cannot manage so well.

But most do not do so well as old age and debility creep up on them. All that work takes its toll on one’s spirit as the body continually urges them to take a break. Caring families worry about their stubbornly isolated parents and endlessly discuss how to meet their needs on their own peculiar terms. 

Genesis describes the challenge of solitude with, “It is not good for man to be alone.” But a parade of animals offers no help as God creates and passes them in front of Adam. A “suitable partner,” is never as simple as it seems. 

The Syrophoenician woman is a case in point. A gentile with little knowledge of Jewish ways, she has obviously heard of Jesus the healer; "Christ" would mean nothing to her. He seems to know nothing of her except she has importuned him when he would like to be alone. What he learns is that she is another human being with an agenda and determination. Very likely, she has dealt with authorities and rejection and stood up to both. She will not back down and, like every human being, she has a claim on Jesus -- because he is human being like her!

That too, is our nature: we have a claim on one another. 

When God fashioned Eve out of Adam's rib, he brought a creature unlike Adam had seen before. She was not a horse, cow, or kangaroo, and she would not be controlled, tamed, or contained. 

Adam learned it the hard way; Jesus was more malleable. In his spirit we live with one another.