Women who get their way

If the lectionary readings had generalized titles, that could be today's. The first reading is the sad story of how Solomon's many wives compromised his devotion to the Lord, to the point where he, the builder of the Temple of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Exodus, the Giver of the Covenant, built shrines and altars to the various local divinities of his wives' nations (even the ones that practiced human sacrifice!) The Gospel shows us Jesus, giving in to the insistent pleas of a woman from those same neighboring countries, a "Syro-Phoenician" with a sick daughter. She was so insistent (can we say she "doggedly" pursued the Lord?) that instead of getting a clue from his focus on "the children of Israel" that she practically won the miracle she wanted out of pure spunk.
What a difference--and yet, what amazing similarity between the two stories of how women got their way with the King.
(Speaking of women and the King, today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes!)