Sunday Gospel Comment

 

Alberic Jacovone OSB

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YEAR B

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - 7.9.03

Is 35,4-7; Jas 2,1-5; Mk 7,31-37

Dogs in Mark¹s Gospel

Race and religious prejudice
The two stories of little dogs and Ephphatah reveal a background of race and religious prejudice, as it was experienced at Jesus' time and in Mark's community, where the Jews dominated at first, but eventually the pagan culture prevailed and ousted the Judaizers forever. Mark reflects that as Jesus began his mission to save all Nations (=Ethnon), prejudice between Jews, Pagans and others raised its ugly head and continued to trouble his community. In the concentric structure, which is peculiar to mark's writing, today's Ephphatah story, is at the centre of Jesus' Mission and provides it with the controlling thought that God¹s salvation is for all. In Mark's community, there were those (Judeo-Christians) who treated Pagans as uncircumcised Gentile Dogs, and even when these converted, they were not to approach the table of the Church, without first becoming circumcised Jews. The Jews always felt to be God's first born (Ex 4,22), since salvation came first to Jews and then to Gentiles' (Rm 1,16)
Little crumbs for Little Dogs.
In the beautiful story of the Lebanese woman (=modern word for Fenician woman), Mark presents Jesus' teaching on prejudice (and his own!): Privilege is no big deal, but even if it was, it cannot be an excuse for prejudice and arrogance. In the story, this Pagan Woman shows wisdom and daring in her subtle use of the word Dog: she argues for dignity of the underdog and down-sizes the superdog. She implies that at God¹s table, we are all little children: there is plenty for all, so there must also be little crumbs for little dogs; and these are cute too In God's Church, we must all consider one other acceptable and worthy. And just as there are no unclean foods (last week's Gospel), so there are no unclean people. the concept of  family around the table of the Lord, with all its Eucharistic implications, helped the early Christians to wrestle with their prejudices of gender, race, religion or status. The ideal of being one in Christ helped formulate the concept of Catholic Church, as a multi-cultural society.
Ephphatah as a controlling thought
The story starts with a nonsensical geography that has baffled all scholars. It's as if Mark, writing from Nairobi, says that Jesus must hurry from Sydney to Wollongong, so he sets off to Port Moresby and Wellington, then goes to Tokyo and Dublin to arrive in Wollongong via Simpson Desert. Did Mark know the Geography of Ancient Middle East? did he set such itinerary on purpose? Some scholars suggest that Mark links the conversion of Pagans along the line of the wondering Jews in the desert. In the story itself, Jesus takes aside the disabled pagan, touches his ears and mouth, then sighs deeply and says: Ephphatah. On purpose, Mark highlights both the word in its own original language (Aramaic), and Jesus' longing for the salvation of all Ethnic Nations. Sadly, this desire to save the world has at times been brutalised into a desire to oppress minorities: Crusaders, Conquistadors, stolen Aborigines. On these sad occasions, first we force our way on others, and then we desensitise ourselves by making these minorities inexistent, invisible, irrelevant. A lesson for us: Does any of the above resonate in our multicultural Australian Church of Anglos versus Dogs or Wogs?

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