12 February 2026 – Thursday of the 5th week in Ordinary Time
HOMILY
This Gospel reveals many things to us about both the person of Jesus and prayer. Moreover, our attitude towards prayer generally reveals quite clearly the image we have of God and Christ.
If our god is that of the philosophers, an immutable god who never changes, there is really no reason to pray to him. If our Christ is a Christ who, from the moment of his birth, already possesses full beatific vision and cannot grow in knowledge and awareness of his mission, a Gospel like today's shows us a disconcerting Christ, who uses very harsh words towards a poor pagan woman.
But if we accept what the Gospel tells us in so many ways, namely that Jesus, throughout his life, grew in age, grace, wisdom and also in the perception of his mission - then this Gospel takes on a meaning that is very beautiful. It means that Jesus' encounter with another person who confronts him with his desires helps him to discover his own mission. It means that we ourselves, poor human beings, can somehow cause God to ‘change his mind’!
Until that point in his life, Jesus had preached only to Jews, and the reception of his message had become increasingly difficult, as we have seen in recent days. He therefore decided to leave Jewish territory and go to the region of Tyre. When the Syro-Phoenician woman asked him to heal her daughter, he refused because he had been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He used an image of a family where bread is served to the sons and not to the little dogs running around the table. In this image there is an opening that the woman skilfully seizes. She puts, so to speak, her foot in the door and replies cleverly that the little dogs can feed on the crumbs that fall from the table and that they therefore belong in a certain way to the family. Faced with such faith, Jesus understands that this woman, like all those who have similar faith, also belongs to the house of God and that he is therefore sent to them too. And he heals her daughter.
All the great spiritual figures in the Bible are people filled with desires, who are not afraid to express those desires to God, even forcefully. Their prayer is that of lovers who love enough to desire, without trying to manipulate the beloved, but still hoping that the desires of that person correspond to their own. Therein lies a path to spiritual growth, for it offers the possibility of an encounter with God, even if that encounter may take the form of a confrontation.
It is like a child who, in expressing his desires, is confronted with the reality of the world around him and thus has the opportunity to grow in this confrontation between his desires and those of the rest of the world. A child who does not express his desires may appear to be very well-behaved, but he does not grow.
The woman in today's Gospel took a great risk in expressing her desire: the risk of receiving a negative response. In this confrontation, her relationship with Jesus was changed. And what is wonderful is that, in any deep relationship, both people are changed. In this relationship too, Jesus gave and received.
So let us not hesitate to come before God with our desires and needs, confident that in this encounter with God, our desires may not be fulfilled exactly as we want them to be, but that our relationship with God will be changed. And that is the ultimate purpose of prayer.
Armand Veilleux