February 10, 2011 Memorial of Saint Scholastica, virgin

[이 안드레아]

2011년 2월 10일 목요일 성녀 스콜라스티카 동정 기념일

제1독서
창세기.2,18-25
18 주 하느님께서 말씀하셨다. “사람이 혼자 있는 것이 좋지 않으니, 그에게 알맞은 협력자를 만들어 주겠다.” 19 그래서 주 하느님께서는 흙으로 들의 온갖 짐승과 하늘의 온갖 새를 빚으신 다음, 사람에게 데려가시어 그가 그것들을 무엇이라 부르는지 보셨다. 사람이 생물 하나하나를 부르는 그대로 그 이름이 되었다. 20 이렇게 사람은 모든 집짐승과 하늘의 새와 모든 들짐승에게 이름을 붙여 주었다. 그러나 그는 사람인 자기에게 알맞은 협력자를 찾지 못하였다.
21 그래서 주 하느님께서는 사람 위로 깊은 잠이 쏟아지게 하시어 그를 잠들게 하신 다음, 그의 갈빗대 하나를 빼내시고 그 자리를 살로 메우셨다. 22 주 하느님께서 사람에게서 빼내신 갈빗대로 여자를 지으시고, 그를 사람에게 데려오시자, 23 사람이 이렇게 부르짖었다.
“이야말로 내 뼈에서 나온 뼈요, 내 살에서 나온 살이로구나! 남자에게서 나왔으니 여자라 불리리라.”
24 그러므로 남자는 아버지와 어머니를 떠나 아내와 결합하여, 둘이 한 몸이 된다.
25 사람과 그 아내는 둘 다 알몸이면서도 부끄러워하지 않았다.

복음
마르코.7,24-30
그때에 24 예수님께서 티로 지역으로 가셨다. 그리고 어떤 집으로 들어가셨는데, 아무에게도 알려지기를 원하지 않으셨으나 결국 숨어 계실 수가 없었다.
25 더러운 영이 들린 딸을 둔 어떤 부인이 곧바로 예수님의 소문을 듣고 와서, 그분 발 앞에 엎드렸다. 26 그 부인은 이교도로서 시리아 페니키아 출신이었는데, 자기 딸에게서 마귀를 쫓아내 주십사고 그분께 청하였다.
27 예수님께서는 그 여자에게, “먼저 자녀들을 배불리 먹여야 한다. 자녀들의 빵을 집어 강아지들에게 던져 주는 것은 옳지 않다.” 하고 말씀하셨다.
28 그러자 그 여자가, “주님, 그러나 상 아래에 있는 강아지들도 자식들이 떨어뜨린 부스러기는 먹습니다.” 하고 응답하였다.
29 이에 예수님께서 그 여자에게 말씀하셨다. “네가 그렇게 말하니, 가 보아라. 마귀가 이미 네 딸에게서 나갔다.” 30 그 여자가 집에 가서 보니, 아이는 침상에 누워 있고 마귀는 나가고 없었다.

http://www.usccb.org/nab/

February 10, 2011
Memorial of Saint Scholastica, virgin

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.

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.

http://www.staygreat.com/ 

http://www.franciscanretreats.net/  

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow reportedly wrote: "If you knock long enough and loud enough.....you are sure to wake up someone."

This quote kind of fits what is going on in the Gospel for today’s Liturgy. A Gentile woman approached Jesus and asked him to drive a demon of one sort or another from her daughter. She was persistent and aggressive in her petition to the Lord, and even when he started teasing her, she kept up her prayer. Because she hung in there, Jesus granted her prayer and told her the demon was gone from her daughter. And the woman found it just as he had said when she got home.

This idea of being persistent in prayer appears quite often in the Scriptures. It follows the old adage: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That’s the message in today’s Gospel: Keep on praying and the Lord will answer you sooner or later.

 http://www.evangeli.net/gospel/gospel.html

 http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

We do not know very much about St. Scholastica whose memory we celebrate today. She was the sister of St. Benedict, dedicated her life to God at a very early age, and founded a monastery of nuns among whom she lived and died. I am a member of the Brothers & Sisters of Charity, a public association of the faithful, and we ask St. Scholastica to pray for us every day. St. Francis and St. Clare are invoked and this reminds us of our mission in the world. When I invoke the names of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, I realize the need to live the contemplative life. We may be busy domestics but what earthly good will all of our good work be if God is not bearing fruit in our hearts?

The first reading from Genesis presents God’s attitude toward the human being he had made. “It’s not good for him to be alone. I’ll make a suitable partner for him.” Then God parades all of the animals before Adam. Adam gives them names but he cannot find a suitable partner. Personally, I love animals but God knew and Adam figured out that no animal can be a suitable partner for a human being. We are wired for human contact. I love the response of Adam when he finally sees Eve for the first time – “at last.” That is the Hebrew equivalent of the English word “Wow!” There is such a complementarity between them that the two become one. They cling to each other and experience humanity in all of its fullness.

The psalmist sets forth the blessings of those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways. All of the images in the psalm speak of fruitfulness. Your work turns to gold, your spouse is like a fruitful vine, your children like olive plants, and you live to see Jerusalem prosper.

The Gospel lesson is the story of Jesus’ interaction with a non-Jewish woman who comes to him to exorcize her daughter. Some have suggested that this story is of a slowly maturing Jesus who finally is brought to the realization of his worldwide mission by this persistent woman. I do not understand this story this way. In fact, the story is not so much about Jesus as about this woman. Gentiles were “dogs” to the Jews. When she made her request Jesus said that the children should eat first and that it is not right to take the food prepared first for the children and throw it to the dogs. Her response? I don’t need the food on the table. All I need is equivalent to what a dog might have given to it under the table by one of the kids. A “scrap” is all I need. A scrap? She is asking him to heal her daughter. A scrap! If that is a “scrap,” what would the full meal be? Jesus comes bringing the eucharistic banquet first to the Jewish people, and only later to the Gentiles. This woman says, in essence, I do not want to wait. I do not need the full meal. A scrap will do. Jesus gives her that scrap.

Is there a common theme in the readings and the life of St. Scholastica? God makes our lives fruitful. The God who does this is the one to whom healing a person is like a scrap of food thrown to the dogs. If this is the case, I wonder what it will be like to sit down at the banquet table of the Lord in the kingdom of God?

http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/ 

You may go your way; the demon has left your daughter"

Do you ever feel "put-off" by the Lord? This passage describes the only occasion in which Jesus ministered outside of Jewish territory. (Tyre and Sidon were fifty miles north of Israel and still exist today in modern Lebanon.) A Gentile woman – an outsider who was not a member of the chosen people – puts Jesus on the spot by pleading with him to show mercy to her daughter who was tormented with an evil spirit. At first Jesus seemed to pay no attention to her, and this made his disciples feel embarrassed. Jesus very likely did this not to put the woman off, but rather to test her sincerity and to awaken faith in her.

What did Jesus mean by the expression‎ "throwing bread to the dogs"? The Jews often spoke of the Gentiles with arrogance and insolence as "unclean dogs" since the Gentiles were excluded from God's covenant and favor with Israel. For the Greeks the "dog" was a symbol of dishonor and was used to describe a shameless and audacious woman. Matthew's gospel records the expression‎ do not give dogs what is holy (Matthew 7:6). Jesus, no doubt, spoke with a smile rather than with an insult because this woman immediately responds with wit and faith – "even the dogs eat the crumbs". Jesus praises a Gentile woman for her persistent faith and for her affectionate love. She made the misery of her child her own and she was willing to suffer rebuff in order to obtain healing for her loved one. She also had indomitable persistence. Her faith grew in contact with the person of Jesus. She began with a request and she ended on her knees in worshipful prayer to the living God. No one who ever sought Jesus with faith – whether Jew or Gentile – was refused his help. Do you seek Jesus with expectant faith?

"Lord Jesus, your love and mercy knows no bounds. May I trust you always and never doubt your loving care and mercy. Increase my faith in your saving help and deliver me from all evil and harm."

Psalm 106:3-4, 35-37, 40

3 Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!
4 Remember me, O LORD, when thou showest favor to thy people; help me when thou deliverest them;
34 They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them,
35 but they mingled with the nations and learned to do as they did.
36 They served their idols, which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons;
40 Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage

 http://www.daily-meditations.org/index2.html

 http://www.contemplative.com/weekday_readings.htm

The Syrophoenician woman holds nothing back from Jesus. Everything flows right out of her heart. She knows her deepest need and expresses it. The illness of her daughter is her absolute reality. She looks right into Christ and sees in him the power of God to heal. From that grasp of reality which is humility and from the stirrings of faith, her response goes right to the heart of Jesus. This was a prayer encounter. A miracle ensues.

 http://goodnews.ie/calendar.php

Here we see Jesus away from his own country and culture; he is in the land of the Phoenicians, an ancient and gifted people whose greatest contributions to civilisation were the alphabet and navigation by the stars; their industries (textiles, dyes, metalwork, glassmaking, etc.) were famous in the ancient world.   Phoenician sailors had travelled throughout the Mediterranean and even into the Atlantic; other nations competed to employ Phoenician ships and crews in their navies. They were an outward-looking people.  The Jews on the other hand were not an ocean-going people, nor at that time particularly outward-looking. They hugged the coast in their small boats and even misnamed their lakes as ‘seas’.  They referred to people of other nations and cities as “foreign dogs.” 

When Jesus arrives in this foreign place he seems reclusive; “he entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there.”  When a woman asked him to heal her daughter he said it was “not right to take the children’s bread (i.e., his service to his own people) and give it to “foreign dogs.”  He used the diminutive, “pups” (if the adults are dogs, the daughter must be a pup).  He did heal the daughter, and dismissed the mother, “You may go your way.”  He did this healing at a distance, as in the case of another foreigner (Mt 8:5-13). 

What does all this mean?  Don’t we always expect Jesus to do the noblest, bravest, most loving thing?  Don’t we expect him to leap over all boundaries of race and even religion?  Yes, that's the trouble: we expect him always to match our idea of him.  Let’s ponder this one and refuse any easy answers; we will meet the text another time. 

 http://www.presentationministries.com/

DOG-GONE

"It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." 뾏ark 7:27

Bishop Fulton Sheen once said that the difference between a baptized Christian and a non-baptized person is greater than the difference between a man and an amoeba. Obviously it's not right to take food from our children and give it to an amoeba, or a dog, for that matter.

The Syro-Phoenician woman intuitively grasped that she was not worthy of being treated with the same status as one of Jesus' disciples. Nevertheless, she also believed that Jesus would be moved by a humble yet persistent appeal to His mercy. "She approached Him and crouched at His feet" like a dog (Mk 7:25). If being humble meant that she could be around Jesus and make her request to Him, then she would gladly be like a dog. Jesus not only granted her request, but honored her faith and raised her status to that of a child of God.

The glory of our faith is that our God adopts us into His family with the full status of His sons and daughters. When we accept Jesus as our Lord, Savior, and God, and receive baptism, we are no longer like amoebas, dogs, or unbelievers. We are no longer slaves (Jn 15:15; Gal 4:7). In Jesus, we are children of God. We are heirs of the promises of God (Gal 4:7). We are "sharers of the divine nature" (2 Pt 1:4). Praise You, Jesus! Alleluia!

Prayer: "Lord, 'increase our faith' " (Lk 17:5).

Promise: "Happy are you who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways!" 뾒s 128:1

Praise: St. Scholastica had the faith of a trusting child as she saw her final request being granted by her loving Father. Her soul was seen ascending by her brother St. Benedict.

 http://www.judeop.org/daily_bread.htm

This one shall be called ‘woman.’ Let’s consider the women.  In Genesis we read about the creation of the first woman, and in the Gospel, the Syrophoenician woman begs Jesus to heal her daughter. And today we remember St. Scholastica, virgin and twin to St. Benedict, whom storytellers love because of a trick she played on her brother. They met once a year in a house near both of their monasteries, and she, sensing that she would die within a few days, asked Benedict to stay through the night conversing on matters spiritual. He refused, so she prayed to God, who sent a fierce storm that forced him to stay. The author of Genesis sensed that women are the ones who push the envelope and credited Eve with breaking God’s rule. Likewise, the woman of today’s Gospel dares not only to approach Jesus for the healing of her woman child, but even argues with him when he refuses. For women everywhere, that they may dedicate their strength to the well-being of those who depend on them. Pbs