(Harold Copping: The Woman of Canaan)
"Woman, great is your faith."
Is 56: 1, 6-7
Rm 11: 13-15, 29-32
Mt 15: 21-28
This Monday, across
the United States, we will experience a wonder of nature, a total eclipse of
the sun. Some parts will have only a partial but here locally we stand at ground
zero where the first shadow of the moon will touch land in this Country.
As amazing as it
will be, we have nothing to do with the movement of the planets, the moon, the
bright blinding light of the sun, the changes of seasons and the passage of
time, are all beyond our reach. So that eclipse, from all that is told, will be
a wonder of nature. The air, the sky, the sun and moon will all for our
pleasure and spectacle put on quite a show.
God’s natural beauty will be strange and at the same time remind us how
small we are. What did we do to deserve
that? Nothing. It’s all there for us to enjoy – a grand show
in the sky; a gift of God’s wondrous creation.
In the same way, our
faith reminds us that that we had nothing to do with God’s choice to intervene
in human history 2,000 years ago and enter this world as a human being to be
born in space and time of a human mother. He told us he would come. The prophets of Israel spoke of this and even
earlier there are allusions to it in Biblical text. In Jesus we recognize God’s
free choice to rescue us from sin and death.
What did we do to deserve that?
Nothing. In fact, we deserve much
less. It’s all gift and grace. God took pity on us and rather than destroy – he
saved us out of love.
So, in essence our
religion is one based on God’s love and generosity towards us. We call that grace and we did nothing to
deserve or earn it. No matter how
virtuous we might become or how seriously we take our faith, we will never
equal what God has done for us – out of love and grace.
That being said,
our Gospel is indeed a beautiful support of this truth. Jesus travels north to what is now modern day
Lebanon, the region of ancient Tyre and Sidon, crossing for some unknown
reason, into Gentile territory and that land of the Canaanites, original
enemies of the Jewish people. It is not
surprising from that cultural viewpoint that these non-Jews and former enemies
were treated with hostility by the Jewish people and referred to as “dogs.”
Matthew just relates that “Jesus withdrew
to the region of Tyre and Sidon.” His first disciples were with him.
Along the way, a
persistent Canaanite woman cried out after Jesus with a respectful but
desperate plea: “Have pity on me, Lord,
Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” It sounds so similar to
other requests for healings that he encountered in his ministry in Israel among
his fellow Jews. So, of course our Lord
will respond – or not.
He responded with silence. Out of character it seems. But she had clearly reached a level of bothersome
– “Jesus disciples . . . asked him, ‘Send
her away, for she keeps calling out after us.’”
As the disciples
bought in to the prejudice against these gentiles, they insist Jesus does the same
and simply dismiss her. Then, it seems
at least at first that he does. He
reminds her: “It is not right to take the
food of the children (Jews) and throw it to the dogs.” A startling response
as Jesus acknowledges that his mission is first to “the lost sheep of Israel.”
Yet, she is not
diminished and continues to play on the cultural “dog comment” and displays
great trust in the person of Jesus and what she believes he can do. Our Lord looks then beyond the barrier built
by this early form of racism and responds to her great faith: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done
for you as you wish.” Here we see once again that while Jesus first mission
was to his own people, God used them as a means to reach out beyond that one
race of people to extend the mercy of God to all humanity. Considering everything, this woman did not
deserve what she received and Jesus could have just kept on walking by without
question from others. Yet, in Christ we see that God is blind to race and false
divisions we have developed.
Here, we are
reminded forcefully that the power of compassion and mercy is greater than a
limited prejudice. That in the mind of God
all are equal and all will share in his unmerited grace. All this desperate woman did was cry out with
trust in Jesus not only for who she recognized him to be but more she believed
in him as the “Son of David” – the Messiah, the hope for humanity. Her faith was expressed in the same way that
Peter, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, the blind man who was healed and others who
experienced God’s mercy through faith in his Son.
All of this
certainly is timely for us as our Country once again is faced with the ugly
dark spirit of racism. Organized groups
based on hate are deeply disturbing and the only action they envision is
violence and division which certainly reminds us that the Evil one is alive and
well. History has offered us dark
reminders of this evil in the Nazis, Communists, KKK, and all present day
active hate groups stirring up the unity and peace among people. Abraham Lincoln once expressed the belief
that the Civil War was God’s punishment on this Nation for the evils of
slavery. He may indeed have been right.
There is nothing
more contrary to the spirit of the Christian Gospel and our own sense of human
nature than the sin of racism. To
believe that certain groups or races of people are inferior to others is a
direct denial of the Biblical story of creation, our lived experience of human
interaction everywhere, and something that denies the very ministry of Jesus
who expressed the heart of God that all come together as one human family,
children of the same creator God.
So, we are offered grace
– all of us. Yet, so often we either
take it all for granted or may, perhaps unconsciously, feel that I deserve it
and you do not. After all I’ve been like
the “good son” in the story of the prodigal son (Lk 15: 11 – 32) doing all my
Father expected of me.
Yet, we see there,
as in the story of this graced woman in the Gospel this Sunday that God wishes
all to receive his call to conversion and our call to faith in his person which
brings renewal and a new way of life. We
can only speculate how this woman was changed by having her persistent prayer fulfilled
and by doing so experienced the abundant mercy of God extended to all who seek
it through faith in Christ Jesus.
There is a special
line in the third Eucharistic Prayer which states: “Listen graciously to the prayers of this family . . . in your
compassion, O Merciful Father, gather to yourself all your children scattered
throughout the world.”
Our hope during
each Mass is that all become one in a mutual bond of fellowship. We have a long
way to go on that but we must make it happen according to our abilities.
Lord Jesus Christ,
who reached across the ethnic boundaries
between Samaritan, Roman, and Jew,
who offered a fresh sight to the blind
and freedom to captives,
help us to break down the barriers in our community.
Enable us to see the reality of racism and bigotry,
and free us to challenge and uproot it
from ourselves, our society, and our world.
Amen
(Fr. John Bucki, SJ Education for Justice)
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