9 February 2023
Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Today the Light of the World shines with favor upon a Gentile woman whose daughter is possessed by an unclean spirit. Both mother and daughter are in a dark place when, in a tremendous act of faith for both, the mother dares to step into a light thought to be unreachable and forbidden, but she is desperate. For the false light of indifferent gods has dimmed utterly, and clearly her faith in them has dwindled to nothing. How many sacrifices had she offered to how many gods for her daughter’s deliverance, and none answered? Then, as St. Zechariah prophesied at the birth of his Son, St. John the Baptist, “In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high…” broke upon her “…to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide [her] feet in the way of peace,” (Luke 1:78-79). She sacrificed nothing to the Son of God save her doubt and any remaining pride. Her gods “…have mouths but do not speak; they have eyes but do not see; they have ears but do not hear; nor is their breath in their mouths. Their makers will become like them, and anyone who trusts in them,” (Psalm 135:16-18). Her pleas fell not on deaf ears, but upon dead stone; there was no one to listen, no one to respond. The cries of this mother echoed in the dark of a spiritual void until the Word of God, who was there in the beginning (John 1:1), said by His mere presence there in Gentile territory, “Let there be light, and there was light,” (Genesis 1:3)!
For the Light of the World has a mouth, and His every Word is that by which we have life (Matthew 4:4); He has eyes by which He saw her and looked upon her with compassion. He has ears to hear her cries, and the breath in His mouth is the very breath that gave the life of God to lifeless clay in the beginning (Genesis 2:7), and gave the Holy Spirit to those by whom He would breathe new life into those dead in their sins (John 20:22-23). Unlike any idol the Light of the World has a heart, one that was moved to pity this woman because of her faith and her plight, and thus not only are the words of Jesus true when He says that God “…makes his sun rise on the bad and the good…” (Matthew 5:45) but it was as though God caused the True Sun to rise upon her and her alone, that like Simeon her “…own eyes have seen the salvation which [He has] prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal [Him] to the nations…” (Luke 2:30-32). It is no wonder the demon fled her daughter: even from so far away the Light of God’s mercy upon this woman was so bright, there was no darkness in which it could hide any longer.