1 Kings 11:4-13 / Mark 7:24-30
We may wonder why idolatry was such an attraction to the Israelites in the Old Testament. In fact, one of the main and recurring sins was idolatry.
It was also the first grave sin that the people of Israel committed when they were freed from slavery - they made themselves a golden calf and worshipped it as the god who brought them out of Egypt.
When they reached the Promised Land, they need not make idols for themselves to worship; there were ready-made idols that were worshipped by the peoples around them.
In the 1st reading, we heard about two of them - Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, who was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war.
Milcom was a Semitic deity of perverted cruelty. Milcom was honoured with human sacrifices. The people would burn their children in fire as a form of sacrifice.
The people worshipped these idols because they could have their desires and greed fulfilled, ie. sex and status, as well as money and power.
Obviously these seem very attractive and lucrative. But we also need to remember that evil always seems to be attractive and lucrative.
And the evil behind it will drive us to be cruel and eventually we would even be willing to sacrifice our children in order to satisfy our evil desires.
But in the gospel, we heard of a Syrophoenician woman who refused to sacrifice her daughter to the evil spirit.
Her faith in Jesus enabled the evil spirit to be cast out of her daughter.
May our faith in Jesus also cleanse us of our wicked desires and greed and may we also help others cast out the evil from their lives.