For saying this, you may go
Published Feb 12, 2026 12:01 am
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Updated Feb 11, 2026 04:39 pm
REFLECTIONS TODAY
Two figures stand out from today’s readings: Solomon and the Syrophoenician woman.
They represent two opposing paths: Solomon’s journey from the living God to idolatry, and the Syrophoenician woman’s journey from paganism and idolatry to the living God.
In explaining the two opposite journeys, Pope Francis cites that Solomon, who is supposed to be the “wisest man in the world,” lost his faith, since he allowed his concubine-women to divert his heart to follow other gods, and his heart did not remain with the Lord, his God, as the heart of David his father did.
On the other hand, the Gospel narrates another worthy story of a mother who “risked making a fool of herself, but still insisted out of love for her daughter.”
She left paganism and idolatry, and found health for her daughter, and for herself she found the living God, and the Lord blesses her.
Pope Francis comments that this is also the story of so many people who still make this journey. The Lord waits for these people, who are moved by the Holy Spirit.
“There are people who make this journey every day in the Church of God, silently seeking the Lord, because they let themselves be carried forward by the Holy Spirit” (Feb. 13, 2014).
First Reading • 1 Kgs 11:4-13
When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the Lord, his God, as the heart of his father David had been.
By adoring Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites, Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not follow him unreservedly as his father David had done.
Solomon then built a high place to Chemosh, the idol of Moab, and to Molech, the idol of the Ammonites, on the hill opposite Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
The Lord, therefore, became angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice (for though the Lord had forbidden him this very act of following strange gods, Solomon had not obeyed him).
So the Lord said to Solomon: “Since this is what you want, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I enjoined on you, I will deprive you of the kingdom and give it to your servant.
“I will not do this during your lifetime, however, for the sake of your father David; it is your son whom I will deprive. Nor will I take away the whole kingdom. I will leave your son one tribe for the sake of my servant David and of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
Responsorial Psalm • Ps 106
“Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.”
Gospel • Mark 7:24-30
Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2026,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.