Persistent Faith

Today's Gospel reading is a story of persistence and the woman in the story is a model of faith for us. Sometimes it may seem like God isn't listening, or doesn't get it, or doesn't care about us [foreigners, women, poor people, fill in the blank with your desired socio-economic group]. But if we are persistent, if we keep the faith and ask God for what we truly need, we will find that God is listening, more than gets it, and cares more about us than we can ever know or understand.

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 childrenand 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.

She came and fell at his feet. She asked. She asked again. And she received. Like I said, a model to be sure.