August 20^th 2017. Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 15:21-28

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

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: Matthew 15:21-28

At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
"Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! 
My daughter is tormented by a demon." 
But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. 
Jesus' disciples came and asked him,
"Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."
He said in reply,
"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, "Lord, help me." 
He said in reply,
"It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs." 
She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters." 
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith! 
Let it be done for you as you wish." 
And the woman's daughter was healed from that hour.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . A Canaanite woman asks Jesus to cure her daughter. He gives her three responses which, frankly, are quite disturbing. Firstly, he ignores her. Then, when she persists, he says that he has only come to save the lost sheep of the House of Israel. Finally, when she kneels before him, he tells her that it is not right that the food of the children of Israel be thrown to the dogs. Why does Jesus respond in this cold, disinterested and rude way? But come to think of it, doesn’t God often ignore our prayers and our pleas? How often he seems disinterested in our plight! How often it seems that the Lord could do with a little advice from us so that he would know better how to intervene in history. But the Christian life is something richer and deeper than immediate reactions or quick fixes. The story of this Canaanite woman points to something fundamental in the life of prayer and in the life of faith. She does not reject the description of herself as a dog. She acknowledges that she has no right to ask anything of the Lord, but she also places herself in front of him, confessing him as her master and recognizing that she needs a crumb of nourishment from him. When Jesus draws out this response from the woman, he compliments her in a remarkable way: “Woman, how great is your faith!” She demonstrates the fundamental pattern of a right relationship of faith: the recognition that we are nothing, that we deserve nothing from the Lord, acknowledging him as our master and asking for a crumb of nourishment from him.

How often we think that we have a monopoly on some particular experience of God. But the first reading tells us that everyone has the possibility of an intimate relationship with God

The first reading contains a text that is quoted by Jesus at the time that he drives the sellers out of the Temple: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples”. This passage from Isaiah 52 is one of those pieces of scripture that shatters the self-referential attitude that so often characterises our experience of God. When we have an experience of the divine how often we think that this is something that is reserved for me only, or for people of my ethnic group: we think we are the only ones who can possibly understand or merit this particular divine initiative. This tendency was a feature of the Hebrew experience of God and has been a feature of Christianity on many occasions. Instead of a beautiful experience leading us into communion with others, we tend to make it the basis for self-affirmation of our own group and the exclusion of others. In this latter part of the book of Isaiah, the prophet breaks down the fence of exclusion by stating that the sacrifices of other nations will be acceptable on the Lord’s holy mountain! This is something that would have been completely unacceptable from a ritual point of view. The Temple had an area reserved for the ordinary people of Israel. Then there was another area where only the Levites could enter, a further section reserved exclusively to the priests, and an inner part where only the high priest could enter. The idea that uncircumcised foreigners could enter this sacred area to offer sacrifice would have seemed like a completely disrespectful abandonment of protocol.

In the Gospel, Jesus replies rudely to a Canaanite woman and (at first) seems to imply that salvation is reserved to a very particular club

This first reading introduces us to a Gospel passage in which Jesus – at least in the beginning of the text – seems to contradict the sentiments of Isaiah. In fact, Jesus has an attitude that is frankly disturbing. A poor woman cries to the Lord, saying that she has a daughter tormented by a demon. At first Jesus ignores her completely and his disciples seem to have more compassion on her than he does. The woman comes after Jesus, still crying. Jesus still refuses to speak to her and says to his disciples, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel”. Already this statement doesn’t seem to make sense. They are already outside of Israel in the area of Tyre of Sidon, a pagan area. Who did Jesus expect to encounter in an area like this? Furthermore, he seems to be saying that anyone outside of Israel cannot be saved, and thus he appears to be denying the universal relevance of the Lord that Israel is called to serve. Then the woman prostrates herself in front of Jesus and says, “Help me Lord!” Jesus’ third response is the worst of the lot: “It is not good to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs”. What a lack of courtesy to describe this woman as a dog! The religious language of that area of the world would use the term “dog” to describe someone who doesn’t have the faith. Why does Jesus respond in this way?

Sometimes the Lord seems to have little interest in our plight or the plight of others. Why is he so slow to respond?

We sometimes ask the same question. Why does the Lord not respond to our prayers more promptly? Why do we have to implore him? Why is it that sometimes we seem to be more enlightened than divine providence itself? We seem to know what the Lord should do while he delays in doing it! A person is suffering and the Lord appears to be looking the other way. He does not seem to be all-knowing or even aware of the situation. I’ll let you know, Lord, what you need to do here. Why does the Lord permit himself to appear lazy, distracted, non-welcoming, disinterested in our plight? The answer is that our faith is not something that can be explained or comprehended in a superficial way. The human being cannot be described with reference to immediate things or instinctive impulses that lack true greatness. We are all called to grow. Life is a constant process of growth. Growth is an internal dynamic of evolution towards the truth and evolution in our relationships, of movement away from things that are immature or insufficient and towards things that are more authentic and real.

The early Church had to undergo a difficult process of recognition that salvation was being offered to all and that the prescriptions of the old covenant no longer applied

The Church in the first century had to undergo a process of opening beyond Judaism and towards the entire universe. This opening to all the men and women of the world seemed to many to be something that went against the instructions of the old covenant. The prescription of circumcision was considered an absolute. The bitter struggle, internal and external to the Church, would eventually give rise to the conviction, from Peter downwards, that persons who did not come from the Jewish family could enter fully into the salvation being offered by Christ. How often it happens that we have difficulty getting beyond rules and regulations that no longer serve any purpose. Changes of this sort are not always a condemnation of what went before: rather they involve real growth. If salvation is now available for the pagans, then this means that they too have this possibility of growth, of no longer being extraneous to the promises that were made to Israel. The woman in the Gospel is a pagan who is undergoing the process of experiencing the liberation of salvation. God himself, in the person of his beloved Son, will grant her request, which means that her sacrifice is being accepted (as per the first reading). Her daughter, the life that comes from this Canaanite woman, will be made whole. In other words, the woman will be the generator of a life that is good, beautiful and healthy. Jesus pays her an extraordinary compliment: “O woman, great is your faith!” The word “woman” in biblical language refers to one who generates faith and life. This woman will have blessed daughters; she will be a mother of life because she has faith.

How does this pagan lady have such faith? The key is her humility, her complete recognition that she is nothing and needs nourishment from the table of the Lord

How does a pagan arrive at this level of faith? The answer is contained in the woman’s words, “It is true Lord, but even the dogs eats the scraps that fall from the master’s table”. She does not reject the description of herself as a dog, but as a dog she asks for help. She places herself like a humble dog under the table. She says, “You have the true bread. You have what I need. I do not ask to be honoured or recognized. I just ask to be nourished. I do not pretend to be a daughter of yours. I am like just a poor domestic animal”. All of this might seem absurd or paradoxical, but it gives us the key to make a leap of progress in the spiritual life. It is all about making ourselves poor. The first Judeo-Christians had to open themselves to the ethnic Christians, the pagans from outside of Israel who became Christian. They had to make themselves poor and do something that was very difficult for the Jews: acknowledge that they had no special claim on salvation. In the Acts of the Apostles, the first Jewish believers in Christ had to have their hearts pierced by the words of Peter in order to come to an acknowledgement of the truth. In the Old Testament in various places we see that the people of Israel had difficulty in accepting that they were in need of salvation. By contrast, this pagan woman was able to do it, and Jesus acknowledged this by his statement, “How great is your faith!” Jesus had difficulty finding faith in Israel but he found it outside in this woman. She expresses her faith fundamentally in the recognition of her own poverty, as someone with no particular rights. When we humble ourselves before God, God bends immediately towards us. Jesus waited for that humility, that poverty, that authentic self-abandonment before him. The woman recognizes that she has no rights, that she has a master, that she must serve him, even though she doesn’t know how. All she asks is this crumb of nourishment. In prayer, in our relationship with God, we must remember that we are poor creatures who need this crumb of nourishment. We need God to give us that which we do not deserve. It is then that we become worthy. What a curious thing! The smaller we are, the greater we are. The poorer we are, the richer we are in him.