Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 10, 2022
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.
More than fifty years ago, I landed in Uganda with a theology degree, seven years of seminary training, and the grace of ordination. I felt prepared, confident that I had much to offer the people I would meet.
It soon became clear that before I could offer anything helpful (or even correctly pronounce a single word), I must allow Uganda’s people to teach me.
So began my education with those I had come to serve. I learned their language, history, values, and customs by listening to the elders. I learned anew, especially from the poor, the faith I thought I knew so well. Importantly, I also learned to laugh along with the children whenever I would make a mistake. The people’s warm hospitality soon helped me to feel at home, though my learning from them continues to this day.
There are many indications in the gospels that Jesus first understood his mission as directed only to the House of Israel, yet that understanding changed. The mission he handed on to his disciples, and by extension to us, is “to all nations.”
The Syrophoenician woman in today’s gospel is one of Jesus’ teachers. This poor woman, urged to courage by her love for her daughter, humbly pressed Jesus into realizing his saving love was for all people: “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps!” Jesus was willing to listen, to be amazed, and to learn from this Gentile outsider.
Can we allow this humble, courageous woman to teach us as well? How attentively do we listen to those different from us in nationality, ethnicity, religion, or politics? How willing are we to learn from those outside our groups, to be amazed at what they have to offer?
Let us pray to be more like Jesus today, open to the changes we need in mind and heart so as to include all God’s people in our circle of compassion and love.
Prayer
Lord, the faith of the Syrophoenician woman, and her love for her daughter, inspires us to call out to you for the needs of those we love. Hear our prayers. May our love for our families, friends, and neighbors draw your healing and consoling presence close to them. May all of our relationships be sealed with your blessing; may our love for one another always draw us closer to you. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Scholastica was the twin sister of the great St. Benedict of Nursia, whose monastic community not only created Western monasticism as we know it but served as the bedrock of the new Western Christendom that rose after the fall of the Roman Empire. Benedict and Scholastica are two deeply inspiring saints and siblings.
Benedict and Scholastica were born around the year 480 AD, just four years after the final sack of Rome in 476 by Odoacer. They were born in Nursia, a town in the beautiful Umbria region of Italy (where Assisi is also located). Scholastica consecrated herself to God as a young girl. When her brother Benedict moved to Monte Cassino to lead the monastery there, Scholastica moved to the same region of Italy and founded a convent for women about five miles away. We know that St. Benedict was head of both monks and nuns, so it seems that Scholastica was abbess of her community, but took spiritual and practical direction from her brother. Their Benedictine orders are still thriving all over the world today.
Once a year, Benedict and Scholastica would visit one another. Since Scholastica was not allowed to enter her brother’s monastery, they would meet at a nearby house. The two siblings spent their time in prayer and conversation.
The years passed, Scholastica and Benedict grew older, and one year (543), it became clear to Scholastica that the next visit would be their last. After passing the whole day together, Benedict and Scholastica sat down to dinner. Scholastica begged her brother to stay with her throughout the evening and until the next day, so they could continue their discussions of God, of love, of heaven.
Benedict was unwilling to break his famous rule, which has gone on to shape the history of monasticism, in order to stay a night away from his monastery. Scholastica saw that she would not be able to convince him to stay. So she placed her head upon his hands, which were folded at the table, and implored God to move his heart that she might spend more time with her beloved brother.
Suddenly, a great storm arose with violent lightning and thunder, and Benedict could not leave. “What have you done, sister?!” he exclaimed.
“I asked you a favor, and you refused it,” she said. “I asked it of God, and God has granted it. Go off, now, leave me and return to your monastery, if you can.”
They spent the night talking, and Benedict returned to his monastery the next morning. Three days later Scholastica died. Scholastica's biographer, St. Gregory the Great, Benedictine monk and later Pope, recorded this story in his Life of Benedict and noted of Scholastica's prayer: "she who had the greater love had the greater power."
Benedict had a vision that Scholastica had died, and he retrieved her body and buried it in a tomb that he prepared himself.
Scholastica is a patron saint of religious sisters and of those seeking protection against violent storms. The bodies of Benedict and Scholastica were moved from Monte Cassino to Le Mans, France, in the seventh century. Scholastica remains a patron of that city, which was home to Blessed Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
Relics from St. Scholastica rest in the reliquary chapel on campus, and her story and image (pictured here today) are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. Scholastica, twin sister to St. Benedict and patron saint of Benedictine sisters—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Sts. Scholastica and Benedict is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.