Thursday February 14, 2019
Introduction
Year I. Why are men and women attracted to one another? Love is stronger than death and stronger than the bonds with parents. They become one chair, most in the chair of the child. Human beings are social, and need and equal partner, created from near the heart of man, “flesh from my flesh and bone from my bones.” And now the man can say “you, thou.”
Gospel. Despised pagans too are offered salvation. The doctors of the Law had called the region where Jesus worked this miracle a region of dogs. God lifts up the lowly who believe. Grace is no exclusive privilege for God’s people. The kingdom is also for pagans.
Opening Prayer
Father of all,
long ago you chose the people of Israel
to make your name known to all nations.
Your Son Jesus Christ, made it clear
that forgiveness and life are the share
of all who believe in him.
Make your Church truly a place of encounter
for all those who grope for you,
that all obstacles and barriers may be removed
and that the riches of all nations and cultures
may reveal the thousand faces of the love you show us
in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Reading 1: Gn 2:18-25
The LORD God said:
“It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him.”
So the LORD God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.
So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs
and closed up its place with flesh.
The LORD God then built up into a woman
the rib that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:
“This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called ‘woman,’
for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.
The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
R. (see 1a) Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Alleluia: Jas 1:21bc
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Mk 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.
Intercessions:
– That there may be room in the universal Church for the cultural riches of various peoples and for their manifesting the same faith in a variety of languages and forms of expression, we pray:
– That we may open our homes and hearts to those who differ in many ways from us, that we may do all we can to integrate them into the human and Christian community, we pray:
– That all of us may be concerned about those who are not here because they are estranged from the Church, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God, our Father,
you set the table of your Son
for all who are willing to come:
for saints and for sinners, for the poor and the rich.
May we learn from your Son, Jesus Christ,
to give to all those who ask for food or love
not meager crumbs or leftovers,
but the food of ourselves,
as Jesus does here for us,
he who is your Son and our Lord for ever.
Prayer after Communion
God our Father,
in this Eucharist we have all been one
in Jesus Christ, your Son.
He died and rose to life for all;
his likeness is reflected
in the face of every human being.
May it become visible in all.
Let his face not be marred or divided
by our prejudices and fears;
do not allow your love to be less than universal,
but unite us all in him
who is our common way to you and to one another,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Blessing
May there be room in this house, that is, in our Christian communities, for all people, whatever their race or social class, their culture or education may be. May Almighty God bless you all, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary
The account of the creation of woman in the second chapter of Genesis is more colorful and dramatic than in the first chapter. First the animals are created and named by the man, demonstrat¬ing his dominion over the lower forms of creation. None of these creatures, however, is found to be a suitable partner for man. After putting the man into a deep sleep, God extracts one of his ribs and forms the woman. She is man’s equal, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. In perfect complementarity, the two become one.
The equality of the sexes is one of the hallmarks of our time. While it may not yet be totally uniform, great strides have been made. The role of wife and mother in the home is still of great importance, but the presence of the woman in the workplace is now quite commonplace. Women are prominently present in the professions today, including the military. In the ministries of the church, with the exception of priestly orders, women today play a vital role. This is a clear expression of what is so central in the Genesis account.
What is still worthy of note, however, and not to be bypassed, is the mother’s role in the home. On the other hand, we have come a long way in recent times in acknowledging that the father also has an important role to play in the home. Parents are the first guides, the first teachers, and the first role models. Much of the strength or weakness of our society today can be attributed to the values lived in the home. Church and school can support the home but not substitute for it.
Jesus commends the Syro-Phonician woman for her faith in today’s Gospel. Parents—fathers and mothers alike—have an obligation to set their children on the right path to faith. “It is the hand that rocks the cradle that rules the world.”
Points to Ponder
Man’s dominion over creation
Unity in marriage
Sexuality and complementarity.