Scripture:
Reflection:
Persistence Our Request
What we ask in prayer, with faith, we will receive, but sometimes it takes patience and a deeper faith. Persistence is the key. Jesus wants to open in us a yet deeper faith, which opens us up to receive the gift that he has for us.
The woman in Mark’s gospel was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, a gentile. Jesus was sent to the children of Israel first, to feed them with his grace. But her faith was so strong, He could not resist her request. She begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter and would not stop in her request.
Jesus never refuses to answer our prayers. He sometimes wants to open in us a deeper faith and so he waits. So often we pray one or two times and give up on Jesus. We need to ask ourselves, is this true faith? Is this the type of faith that Jesus is asking of me? The kind of faith that is untrusting, shallow, weak, or unbelieving. She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
What we ask in prayer with the kind of faith the Phoenician woman displayed, Jesus will never refuse to answer. Don’t lose faith and hope in your prayers. Reach deep and Jesus will give you what you ask for.
Deacon Peter Smith serves at Our Mother of Sorrows Parish, in Tucson, Arizona. He is a retired Theology teacher from Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham, Alabama, a retired soldier of the United States Air Force, a grad student at Xavier University of Ohio, and a member of the Passionist Family.