Matthew 15: 21-28
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082023.cfm
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. It was our pitiful condition, lost in sin and darkness and the presence of the evil one that compelled the compassion of God to be in pursuit of us. He told us he would come.
The prophets of Israel spoke of this and 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 us in anger – he saved
us out of love.
So, in essence our religion
is one based on God’s love and generosity towards us. Yet, no matter how virtuous we 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 a cultural
viewpoint 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. In fact, the whole salvation
story will now always begin with the chosen (Jews) then out to the Greeks and
from there to the entire world. 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. It was a very courageous thing she did,
actually, in desperate desire for the healing of her child. 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.
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. The African people were brought over under in humane conditions,
treated as if they were animals and in fact labeled as being less than human,
and enslaved for very backbreaking servile work. In that way we may find a
similarity to the prejudice against the Canaanite woman.
There is nothing more
contrary to the spirit of the Christian Gospel and our own sense of human
nature than the sin of racism. We sadly see the same sin in the treatment of
the unborn child whose fundamental right to a future is denied by abortion. 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.
We see 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.
Let us put aside the ugly
head of prejudice and false categories that we may place people in to. It is not the mind of God and can never be
ours as well.
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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