Scrutiny

Thursday’s gospel, the healing of the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter (Mark 7:24-30), is remarkable for the initial response of Jesus. The gentile woman, asking for the deliverance of her daughter from an unclean spirit, is clearly motivated by love (for her daughter) and faith (in Jesus). His response is shocking: “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” This is NOT the sweet, nice, saccharine, girly Jesus of love and mercy we have been introducing to our young for the last 40 years or so. This is a harsh, insulting, confrontational, challenging and candid Jesus. For the Jews, dogs were unclean and not allowed into their houses. This woman, as a gentile, is unclean to a Jew. It is most probably a historical incident by use of the "embarassment criterion:" it is unlikely the apostolic Church would have fabricated such a negative incident about their Lord.

Apparently the Greek language has a connection in the root words for woman and dog so there may even have been a negative insinuation of the woman as dog-like. Even today, our most derogatory expressions for the feminine refer to the canine in a way that profanes both. The fact that the woman’s daughter has an “unclean spirit” brings another suggestion of impurity to the situation. Clearly, Jesus’ words to the woman imply an insult: you are unclean, associated with dogs, and unworthy of the work of God occurring in my mission to my (not your) people.

The woman’s response is even more surprising. She is not offended, but persists in her petition: “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Indifferent to the insult, she is remarkably humble: free of pretense or arrogance. Recall that she has already cast herself at his feet in the posture of a beggar or even of a dog. Clearly, she has no ego, reputation, image or social status to defend: she only wants her daughter free and she is convinced that Jesus can do this for her. Jesus is completely disarmed by her “littleness” and responds affirmatively and succinctly: “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

On the one hand, the passage indicates that Jesus’ mission was clearly to the Jews. He understood the limitations and boundaries of his work and did not overextend himself to solve all of mankind’s woes. He initially resists the request in the manner he rebuked his own mother at Cana. His rebuke here, like that at Cana, seems to be a scrutiny, a challenge, a provocation. He sees the evident love and faith of the woman; but that is not enough. He scrutinizes more deeply and surgically for the presence of pride and arrogance and he dramatically elicits the fundamental humility of the beautiful woman. “Insult me all you want,” she seems to say, “but I love my daughter and I will persist in the face of your rebuke because I believe in you.”

What an exhilarating word! This marvelous woman invites us to emulate her love and faith, but even more so her humility and persistence. Furthermore, we are invited to be faithful to our given task and no more: to know, with Jesus, the boundaries and parameters of our mission and not to overextend; to say NO with the same decisiveness with which we say YES. And we are called to welcome those who refuse to flatter us but honor us with the candor, precision and challenge of such a scrutiny that unveil our hidden pride and beckons us to humility. This unclean woman with an unclean daughter models for us the way to real freedom (for ourselves and for those we love): love, faith, humility and persistance.