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.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Against the Demons.
The Lord says, “Because of what you have said, the demon has left your daughter.” The question is, how did she speak to deserve such a reward? Well, with humility and faith. Those are the two keys that made Jesus cast out the demons from within us: Humility and faith. If I cultivate these two attitudes, my marriage can change drastically.
Notice that what Jesus says to the pagan woman is harsh. I could react by saying it seems unfair, or that God doesn’t act like that because He doesn’t make distinctions between people… But that woman accepts Jesus’ conditions with humility, and the result is that she saves her daughter.
Applied to marriged life:
John: My wife is insane. She overreacts and loses control saying outrageous things. She lies just to make me look bad and takes unwarranted reprisals against us.
Mentor marriage: I understand, John. It must be really tough.
John: The problem is, she doesn’t want to change. She thinks the problem is not her but everyone else around her. She has been subjected to many dissatisfactions in life, and now she has exploded in this uncontrollable way.
Mentors: Well, hang in there, John. You have a tough but great task ahead: You just need humility and faith. Humility to accept the humiliations and contempt, and faith to believe that by offering these humiliations for her in union with Christ, He will save her. Make her feel understood, feel that you are by her side. She has been alone for many years, and now it’s your turn to suffer for her salvation. One day the Lord will resurrect your marriage, and you will have been an artisan of God’s love in her, a witness to God’s love in her. You have this great mission, John. May the Holy Spirit always be with you.
(John took this mission seriously. He understood that the fight is not against his wife but against the demons that had her dominated and blinded. He said yes, with faith and humility, and the Lord cast those demons out of her heart).
Mother,
Sometimes, we don’t realize that we are subjected to our sins. Demons play with us, with our feelings, with our reasoning, with our pride… and take over our will. Let’s not forget that we are the adequate help for each other, especially on the path to heaven. Praise the Lord, who wants to free us from all evil. Amen.