August 17^th 2014. TWENTIETH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Matthew 15:21-28

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio

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GOSPEL:                                  Matthew 15:21-28

Jesus left Genesaret and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Then out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, ‘Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.’ But he answered her not a word. And his disciples went and pleaded with him. ‘Give her what she wants,’ they said ‘because she is shouting after us.’ He said in reply, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel’. But the woman had come up and was kneeling at his feet. ‘Lord,’ she said ‘help me.’ He replied, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs’. She retorted, ‘Ah yes, sir; but even house-dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table’. Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.’ And from that moment her daughter was well again.

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . There was a historical divide between Israel and the people of Canaan. The people of Israel drove the Canaanites out of the Promised Land. This was a people who had been excluded from salvation in the Old Testament. The Canaanite woman in the Gospel ought not even to speak with Jesus, but she approaches him, accepts him as Lord and calls him by the Messianic title “Son of David”. What causes her to break down the barriers and seek salvation in this way? Her experience of suffering leads her to forget all of the pretence and illusion that fills her life. As a result, she approaches with humility the table of the Lord.

            Our lives are full of pretensions and self-delusion. We do not recognize the depth of our problems and we do not realize our desperate need to eat even the scraps that fall from Jesus’ table. Sometimes it is only suffering and despair that prompt us to approach the Lord in the correct manner. Jesus’ attitude seems harsh in the Gospel, but he leads the woman to approach him in a spirit of absolute humility, recognizing that only he can give life and offer salvation. Let us lower ourselves to the ground as this wise woman of Canaan has done! Let us approach the table of the Lord with humility and expectation, in the knowledge that even the scraps from that table can bring us salvation.

The first reading tells us that those who were once excluded will one day enter the house of God. The Gospel presents us with a Canaanite woman, the very people who were driven by Israel from the Promised Land.

In the first reading the Prophet Isaiah proclaims the unheard-of news that the pagans, those who were once excluded from salvation, will one day become the servants of God. The house of God will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. In the Gospel for Sunday, we have the figure of a Canaanite woman. The Canaanite in the Old Testament was the enemy, the one who occupied the Promised Land. In order to enter this territory, the people of Israel had to wage war with the Canaanites and cast them out. What causes a woman from this cast-off people to approach Jesus?

Jesus has been rejected by his own people and has gone to a people who were once excluded from salvation

The Canaanite woman in the Gospel has a daughter who is tormented by a demon. Jesus has gone to the area of Tyre and Sidon because he has been rejected by his own people and by the Scribes and Pharisees. Even though the woman is a Canaanite and has a demon in her house, she still addresses Jesus as Lord and calls him Son of David. The use of the title “Son of David” indicates that she recognizes him as the Messiah.

We erect a barrier between ourselves and salvation because we don’t realize the depth of our problems and think we can solve them on our own. The suffering of the Canaanite woman helps to bring down this barrier

This woman is a mother but she is unable to fulfil her role as mother. Her daughter has a demon and she can do nothing to help her. We leave God on the threshold of our lives because we are convinced that we can manage by ourselves. We believe that everything is going on fine. Our problems are not that serious or frightening. The Canaanite woman, however, finds herself in a situation of great suffering. The demon that possesses her daughter threatens to destroy her. The mother is close to despair and it is this that tears down the barrier between herself and Jesus. Given the historical differences, she should not even speak to someone like Jesus, but her suffering eliminates the differences and she approaches him boldly.

Jesus seems harsh, but his harshness is a strategy that challenges the woman to seek salvation in the correct manner

Jesus responds in a negative manner. She cries out but he doesn’t say even a word. The disciples seem to have more compassion than Jesus in this situation! His eventual reply is harsh: ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel’. Does this means that there is no space in the house of God for this lady? As we shall see, the space is there, and it is of a very definite sort, but the woman must seek the place out herself. She prostrates herself before Jesus, an act in which she recognizes that there is something sublime and divine in this man from Israel. But Jesus continues to be difficult. “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs”, he says. The woman replies, “Yes, that’s true”. And it is true! There are things that the person who is alienated from salvation cannot receive. But this woman is determined to find a place for herself inside salvation and she retorts: “Even house-dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table”.

Jesus expects us to find our own place at the master’s table. Often it is the experience of suffering and despair that teaches us to approach the table in a correct manner

Jesus had gone to the area of Tyre and Sidon for the very reason that he had been turned away by the children of Israel. In spite of having experienced the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the children of the Kingdom didn’t really want to eat what Jesus was truly offering. The Scribes and Pharisees had refused to partake of this bread from the master’s table and so the scraps fell to those who had previously been excluded. The Canaanite woman places herself there, in the gap left by the incredulity of the people of God. She says, “I will take these scraps if they don’t want them. If the sons don’t eat, then maybe the dogs can”. With this humble attitude, the woman finds her place in the order of salvation, a task that the Lord leaves to us to accomplish for ourselves. The experience of suffering led the woman to approach the Lord in humility and that is how it should be with us. Suffering can help us to rid us of certain stupid modes of reasoning and arrogant attitudes about ourselves. Sometimes our prayer begins in a pretentious way, but over time and with the experience of suffering this prayer can become a more honest form of supplication. Eventually, supplication is not enough and we learn to pray in a truly humble way as the Canaanite woman has done. She eventually said, “I am but a dog and you can treat me like a dog, but do not deprive me of your life-giving food. I need the life that only you can give”. Once we realize that only Christ can give us life, that only he has real bread, then we begin to dismantle the illusions and pretence that fills our lives.

The door to salvation is small, and we must become smaller and more humble if we wish to enter it

Which is the greater thing, the healing of the daughter with the demon, or the fact that the mother receives salvation? I would say without hesitation that the second thing is the most important. Sometimes we have genuine problems that cause us anguish, but the most essential thing is to find a place at the table of the Lord, in other words, to enter into relationship with him. Often the door is very small and narrow, but we must not complain about the size of the door because it is this fact that helps us to become smaller. We must be razed to the ground so that we see everything in its proper perspective, the perspective of one who needs to receive, not the one who has pretensions about what he can give.