The gospel for Thursday of the fifth week in Ordinary Time is taken from Mark 7th, chapter 24 30th verse. 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, 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, but 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. This story underscores the confusion and, in a way, the anger of the Pharisees and the scribes, because everything was only for the Jews.

And here we see Jesus open and receptive to someone who was not a part of the community. And so he makes a clear statement that his major role is to save the Jewish people. But at the same time, this story foreshadows the fact that ultimately he will say to every man, to every woman, he longs for their healing. He longs for their transformation. There is nothing in Jesus that limits his ability to heal and to save those who come to him. Foreign Closing PRAYER Father, we sometimes always focus on the inner circle.

We have the friends that we have. We feel an obligation to be with them, but we sometimes don’t show the same love for the stranger, the outcast. Help us to do better. Help us to see in every man and every woman the goodness that you’ve created there. Help us to always be ready to offer the gifts of your kingdom to anyone and everyone we meet. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.