1 Kings 11:4-13 / Mark 7:24-30
Life has its fair share of disappointments, and we ourselves know what disappointments are. No one is spared from it.
As much as that word is applied to the whole of humanity, it is not often used for God. We don't often say that God is disappointed.
But the 1st reading gives us a sense that God was disappointed and even angry with king Solomon.
Despite all his wisdom and wealth, he fell away from God, and God even appeared to him twice but he failed to repent.
His foreign wives had swayed his heart and he preferred them to God. Indeed he was a disappointment to God.
But in the gospel, it was a foreigner and a pagan who offered some encouragement to us who feel that life is such a big disappointment.
The Syrophoenician woman begged Jesus to cast the devil out of her daughter, and not taking no for an answer, she persevered and persisted in her request.
So if an outsider can have her request granted, then we, who are the children of God and who eat at the Lord's table must have more faith in the Lord's love for us.
Let our faith in God's providence be an encouragement for others in their disappointments.