"God cares for his people."

             Faith changes everything.

             Faith in this is the basis for salvaion.

           

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Genesis 2:18-25

The Lord God said,

"It is not good for man to be alone; I will give him a helper who will be like him."

Then the Lord God formed from the earth all the beasts of the field and all the birds

of the air and brought them to man to see what he would call them; and whatever man called every living creature,

that was its name. So man gave names to all the cattle, the birds of the air and to every beast of the field.

But he did not find among them a helper like himself. Then the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over man and he fell asleep.

 

He took one of his ribs and filled its place with flesh.

The rib which the Lord God had taken from man he formed into a woman and brought her to the man.

The man then said, "Now this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken from man."

That is why man leaves his father and mother and is attached to his wife, and with her becomes one flesh. Both the man and his wife were naked and were not ashamed.

 

Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 Blessed are those who fear the Lord.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊      

Mark 7:24-30

When Jesus left that place, he went to the border of the Tyrian country.

There, he entered a house, and did not want anyone to know he was there; but he could not remain hidden.

A woman, whose small daughter had an evil spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet.

Now this woman was a pagan, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

 

Jesus told her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the puppies."

But she replied, "Sir, even the puppies under the table eat the crumbs from the children's bread."

Then Jesus said to her, "You may go your way; because of such a response, the demon has gone out of your daughter."

And when the woman went home, she found her child lying in bed, and the demon gone.

 

Gospel Reflection ：

 

How do we speak to God in prayer? The psalm response says, "Blessed are those who fear the Lord."

This doesn't mean that we should be so afraid of God that we don't want to disturb him with our petitions in case he gets angry.

Fear of the Lord is not terror. Rather, it's a reverence and respect for the majesty of God,

acknowledging that he is God and that we are called to serve him. God is "merciful, slow to anger, loving and faithful" (Ps 86:15).

 

He is not a vindictive God, but One who cares for his people. So how do we pray to him?

In dread or daring, without conviction or full of confidence? The Syrophoenician woman begs Jesus to heal her daughter.

She pleads with parrhesia, that is holy daring, which is a fundamental attitude for anyone who believes in Christ,

 

since we recognize his greatness, but also have total confidence in his loving providence,

even when we are tested to wait for a response. It's that same daring we refer to when we pray the Our Father at Mass.

He made us his children and we are not afraid to turn to him for help.