Today’s Daily Gospel Reflection

February 13, 2025

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Mk 7:24-30
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Gospel

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.

Gospel Reflection

Angela (Kim) Harkins ’97 M.A. ’03 Ph.D.
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It was a hot, humid day in August 2003 at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart when we married. I remember standing at the altar, light streaming through blue stained glass, as we vowed to love and care for each other “in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.” Looking back, sickness felt distant then—I could recall being ill just once in college.

As children, it is our mothers who give us our first immunity in the womb. Before I was even aware of what sickness was, my mother was already protecting and caring for me. I know that she prayed much for me in those days before I was born, hoping that I would be healthy.

In the gospel, the Syrophoenician mother begs Jesus to heal her daughter. While their exchange about “dogs eating crumbs under the table” is memorable, the story begins with her anguished, unrecorded cry. What were those words that stopped Jesus, compelling him to listen? The Evangelist leaves them unsaid, inviting us to imagine our own prayer in times of need.

After years of health, my husband and I recently faced illness. He spent two months in the hospital. It was a terrifying time but also a time filled with a mysterious grace that deepened my sense of my vocation. Many friends and family prayed the Memorare with us. During those long days and nights, I also prayed my own anguished prayers, begging Christ for his healing. Today, we are profoundly grateful for the recovery that my husband has made thus far.

The Syrophoenician woman’s unrecorded cry reminds us that Christ sees our suffering and hears our prayers. May we trust that Christ will be present in our moment of need.

Prayer

Br. Pablo Quan, C.S.C.

Almighty Father, the woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit fell at the feet of Jesus with great devotion. With the same faith, may we also trust and commend ourselves to your healing grace. We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

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St. Catherine of Ricci, you are the bi-locating mystic who is patron of sick people, pray for us!
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