Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Have you had the experience of asking for something and hearing the words, “The answer is no, and don’t ask me again”? Impatience with the needs and wants of others is all too common among human beings. Not so with God. The Lord Jesus teaches us through his encounter with the Canaanite woman, in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter fifteen, verses twenty-one to twenty-eight, that we should ask, and ask, and ask again for what we need. The woman’s daughter is possessed by a demon, hardly a minor problem. The first time she asks for healing, the Lord “did not answer her a word.” Was he refusing her petition? She would have been justified in thinking so. Then the disciples counsel Christ to send the woman away, and he says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”; the chosen people must be first to respond to the Messiah. Bold, but also reverent, “she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ Christ reminds her that, because she is not a Jew, she can not be faithful to God’s law as revealed through Moses. Unflatteringly, but truthfully, she is told that the fullness of grace in Christ, given to those outside of the covenant, would be as food from the table given to mere dogs. Rather than being discouraged, the woman is all the bolder, and gladly compares herself to the dogs that are blessed to be enriched by “the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” And finally, after three supplications, she hears the blessed words, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” The Catechism speaks about the boldness in prayer proper to sons and daughters of God. “Just as Jesus prays to the Father and gives thanks before receiving his gifts, so he teaches us filial boldness: ‘Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.’ (Mk 11:24) Such is the power of prayer and of faith that does not doubt; ‘all things are possible to him who believes.’ (Mk 9:23) Jesus is as saddened by the ‘lack of faith’ of his own neighbors and the ‘little faith’ of his own disciples (Mk 6:6) as he is struck with admiration at the great faith of the Roman centurion and the Canaanite woman.” (CCC 2610) We are children of God by baptism and the gift of faith. Let us pray with the perseverance and confidence proper to us as heirs to eternal life with Jesus Christ our Sovereign Lord
JESUS BELONGS TO EVERYONE
The scene must have been quite surprising. A pagan woman began shouting and running towards Jesus. There was a courageous Canaanite mother who dared to get close to Jesus and plead for her sick daughter. Evidently, she believed that God wanted all their sons and daughters to have a decent life, even pagan women.
Her prayer was unequivocal: “Sir, take pity on me, my daughter is tormented by a devil.” But Jesus did not answer a word. His silence is not easy to explain. Wasn’t his heart moved by the obvious agony of that grieving mother?
The tension must have been more unbearable when Jesus broke his silence and spoke firmly to his pleading disciples: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”
The woman, however, stood firm. She ran up to him and knelt at his feet, once again pleading: “Lord, help me!” Her cry was the echo of the voice of so many men and women who do not belong to that Saviour and are living in pain and suffering. Should they be excluded from His compassion?
Jesus reaffirms his position: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house dogs.” The woman does not surrender to such apparently chilling indifference on the part of Jesus. She does not challenge Jesus’ statement, hard though it is, and replies: “Ah, yes, Sir; but even house dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.” God’s table, indeed, has bread for everyone.
Jesus’ response came at once. Attentive to the motherly pleadings of this pagan woman, he fully understood God’s wish: “Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.” God’s love towards those who suffer has no boundaries and does not discriminate between believers or unbelievers. Listening to this grieving mother does not distract him from the will of his Father, but, rather, it manifests his true intentions.
Christians in today’s word must learn to live along with others who profess to be agnostics, indifferent or pagan. They are not enemies that we must get rid of along our way. If we learn to listen to their woes, we may find out their needs and vulnerability and we may be able to offer them light and encouragement.
Jesus does not belong to Christians alone. His light and saving power belong to all. It is a great mistake if we Christians lock ourselves within our own groups and communities, while eliminating, separating or condemning anyone else who does not become our members. We shall be fulfilling our Father’s will only if we remain open and welcome anyone who suffers and asks for our compassion.
FIRST OF ALL
Jesus was fully aware of everything around him. In so doing, He discovered His Father’s will. He looked at creation with great concern and He understood His Father’s mystery, inviting him to take care of the “least” among His children. Jesus opened His heart to people’s suffering and listened to His Father’s voice, asking him to alleviate their pain.
The Gospels have kept for us the narrative of Jesus’ encounter with a pagan woman, in the region of Tyre and Sidon. The story is surprising as it tells us how Jesus learned and discovered new ways of carrying out His Father’s will.
A desperate woman comes out to meet Jesus. She is alone and shouting: “Sir, Son of David, take pity on me!” Her daughter is sick and tormented by the devil. Her home has become hell. Out of her heart comes one cry: “Lord, help me!”
Jesus’ first answer seems unusually cold. “I was sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” It was like saying, ‘I am not concerned with the pagans’ – or, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house dogs.”
That answer was really harsh, but the woman did not take it as an insult. She knew what she was asking for and, picking up on Jesus’ quote, she retorted: “Ah, yes, Sir; but even house dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.”
Jesus suddenly understood and looked at her with a new light. The woman was right: what she was asking for was a reminder of His Father’s will, – that no one should suffer. Then Jesus was moved and answered her: “Woman, you have great faith; let your wish be granted.”
Jesus, until then so sure of His own mission, allowed Himself to be taught and corrected by a pagan woman. Suffering has no frontiers. He had been sent to the people of Israel, but God’s compassion must reach out to anyone who
was suffering and in need of help.
When we come across anyone in suffering, the will of God is that we alleviate his/her pain. That comes first of all. Everything else comes next. That was how Christ showed us the way to go to the Father.
SMALL PEOPLE, GREAT FAITH
Jesus and his disciples were in the country of Phoenicia, to the north of Galilee. While he was there, a Canaanite woman came to Jesus seeking help for her sick daughter. The way Jesus responded to this woman seems to most of us to be out of character. The first thing he did was ignore her request – “He gave her no word of response.” That seems to be the only time in his life when Jesus stood silent in the presence of a person who was seeking his help. The disciples wanted to send her away, and even asked Jesus to give her what she wanted. To this Jesus answered, “My mission is only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The woman fell at his feet with a desperate plea: “Lord, help me.”
Jesus answered her by saying, “It would not be proper to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs.” Isn’t this totally out of character? Well, at least we know that the story has a happy ending. Jesus ultimately granted the woman’s request and commended the quality of her faith. But how do we explain the seeming contradictions in the interview?
Let the story stand as it is and use it to examine ourselves instead of our Lord. What about you and me? Should we willingly accept in our own lives those things which we could never accept in his? Let’s look at this story with that thought in mind.
Start at the beginning, where the woman came to Jesus for help, and he gave no word of response. We seem to be disturbed by that. What about our own silence and unresponsiveness in the presence of human need? We expect Jesus to care. By the way our evangelist tells the story, Jesus’ “temporary” indifference could have been a didactic way of teaching a lesson to those who were listening or watching at the time. When it comes to social service or caring for the downtrodden, Jesus is way out front of everyone else.
What about “My mission is only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel?” Jesus was not a racist. He was he most color-blind who ever lived. In fact, he got into trouble and ultimately led him to the cross…because he insisted that God cared just as much about Gentiles as he did about Jews. We should do well to take a look at our own lives in this regard.
Hence one final thought. The most disturbing part of the interview was Jesus’ comment, “It would not be proper to give the children’s food to the dogs.” Here again, the tone of His voice, the expression of his face, and the actual words used, “children of God” and “family pet,” would point out to a less disturbing response. The actual dialogue seems leading to a quick and final “Woman, you have a great faith! Your wish is granted!” The evangelists wrote the Gospels, many years after Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension; they chose some of the incidents, miracles and encounters with people like our Canaanite woman. Matthew, evidently, dramatized Jesus’ interview with the woman a bit too much!
A WOMAN’S CRY
Around the year 80BC, when Matthew wrote this gospel, the Church was faced with a big question: what should Jesus’ followers do? Should they continue to preserve their identity as a Jewish nation, or be open to the pagans?
Jesus had preached and moved within the boundaries of Israel. Imprisoned and executed summarily by the chiefs of the temple, he did not have time to do much more. His disciples, however, as they heard and read about his life, noticed two very revealing things. First, Jesus was able to learn that pagans often revealed a greater faith than His own followers. Secondly, Jesus did not show his compassion only to the Jewish people. God is compassionate to all.
Today’s scene is really moving. The woman goes out to meet Jesus. She was not a member of the chosen race. She was a pagan, from the accursed Canaanite people who had always fought against the Israelites. She is a woman, alone and without a name. She comes without her husband or brothers to defend her. Probably, she is a single mother, a widow or someone abandoned by her own.
Matthew tells us only about her faith. She is the first woman that ‘speaks’ out in his gospel. Her whole life seems to be summarized in one single cry that expresses profound misery. She follows the disciples shouting. She is not discouraged by Jesus’ apparent silence or by the disciples’ indifference. Her daughter’s suffering, tormented by the devil, had become her own pain: “Lord, help me!”
Finally, the woman comes up to Jesus, kneels in front of him and says: “Lord, have pity on me!” She does not accept Jesus’ argument that He has come to serve the Israelites only. Evidently, she does not accept the racial, religious, political and religious discrimination of which so many women were victims: marginalized and defenceless.
It was at that moment that Jesus burst out in all His humility and magnanimity: “Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted!” The woman is right. All other arguments are of no use. Our first duty and right is diminishing human suffering. Her petition coincides with God’s wish.
What are we, Christians, doing today in response to the number of women who are marginalized, ill-treated, abused or forgotten by the Church? Do we leave them unattended just because we have so many other problems to solve? That was not what Jesus did.