Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 20, 2023

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We must have faith in God’s goodness against all indications to the contrary/God’s love is for all peoples

Matthew 15:21–28

Then Jesus went from that place and 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 he did not say a word in answer to her.

His 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 him 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 her daughter was healed from that hour.

Music Meditations

Opening Prayer

Adapted from Thomas Merton:

Lord, there have been times when I was ready to give up, believing that nobody cared about my pain or that of a love one. Believing that nobody cared about the state of the earth. I need to remember Lord, that you care for me and mine and I need to remember your goodness when it seem all is lost.

Companions for the Journey

From Living Space, a Service of the Irish Jesuits:

Jesus is seen on one of his few visits outside Jewish territory. The cities of Tyre and Sidon are on the Mediterranean coast in what is today Lebanon. While he is there he is approached by a Canaanite (that is, a non-Jewish) woman whose child is “troubled by a demon”. Whether it was an actual possession or some natural physical or mental ailment does not really matter. Already the woman’s faith and trust in Jesus is indicated by the way she addresses him, “Lord, Son of David!” coupled with her plea for his compassion.

At first, Jesus ignores her completely. The disciples intervene and ask Jesus to give her what she wants because she is making such a nuisance of herself. Jesus replies that his mission is only to the “house of Israel”, to which this woman clearly does not belong. N the meantime the woman continues her pleading, “Help me, Lord!” She is following, in fact, advice that the Gospel gives – keep on asking. Jesus replies in words that sound very harsh, if not racist: “It is not right to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs.” ‘Dogs’, together with ‘swine’, was a common colloquial expression among Jews for Gentiles (cf. Matt 7:6: “Do not give what is holy to dogs or cast your pearls before swine.”) The dog was regarded as an unclean and promiscuous animal. Because it was such a common expression, it is probably not as harsh as it sounds to us and, if spoken with a measure of humor (implied by Jesus’ use of the diminutive, ‘doggies’), would not have given offence at all. As they say, everything is in the tone of voice. (Not unlike when my Chinese friends call me a gwai-lo [‘devil fellow’] – a common term for non-Chinese.) Jesus was not a racist; that is clear from other situations where he dealt with non-Jews and with other commonly despised groups. For her part, the woman certainly is not in the least fazed. She comes right back: “Even the dogs eat the leavings that fall from their masters’ tables.” That was enough for Jesus. She had proved her genuineness. “Woman, you have great faith. Your wish will come to pass.” Her daughter was cured on the spot. It is a hint of what is to come.

Membership of God’s people will be measured not by birth or circumcision but by a living faith in Jesus as Lord. A story like this is an occasion for us to look at our own attitudes to people of other races, ethnic groups and nationalities not to mention the socially disadvantaged or physically or mentally disabled – in other words, any people who are ‘different’. How inclusive are we in word and action? And does our parish community go out of its way to provide a welcome for the ‘outsider’? These are very real questions in societies which are becoming more and more inter-cultural.

Further reading:

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • Have I ever seen the hand of God in unexpected situations?
    How did I react?
  • Did the reaction of the Canaanite woman surprise me? How would I have reacted if the first answer I got from Jesus was “no”?
  • Has it ever seemed that at times God was ignoring me, or at least distant and unapproachable?
    Does initial rejection of a petition or hope send me away in defeat or resentment, or does it call forth an energy and determination to make myself known and heard?
    Have I ever felt that my misery was ignored by God, as Jesus seemed to ignore the Canaanite woman at first?
  • Do I see in this woman an indomitable spirit that will never give up hoping and praying for someone she loves?
    Who or what in my own life calls out that persistence in me?
  • Her prayer to Jesus was an expression of both helplessness and trust. Where in my prayer life have I expressed both?
  • Often we think of faith as belief in a set of theological constructs, but Jesus in this paragraph identifies faith as a trust in his love and kindness. How would I characterize the word “faith” in my own life?
  • In chapter 10 of this gospel Jesus tells his disciples not to stray out of Jewish territory, and at the beginning of this segment of chapter 15, he seems to be emphasizing that his mission is to the House of Israel only. However, by the end of the section, we see that Jesus has learned something profound about the faith of a non-Jew, and changes his negative response to a positive one.
    Do I forget that Jesus had to learn how to walk, how to be a carpenter, how to pray, how to shape a mission, how to follow it, and that this learning might be a gradual process, subject to possible human error?
  • Is it hard for me to think of the humanity of Jesus, with its attendant learning curve?
    Is it hard for me to think of Jesus having to learn things about his mission?
    Although theology tells me that Jesus is both God and human do I frequently dwell on Jesus’ divinity, at the expense of his humanity?
  • Do I harbor, maybe even unconsciously, a sense of exclusivity about how the faith should be lived out and by whom?
  • Who are the people in my life that I don’t pay enough attention to?
  • Might the purpose of this story be to illustrate that membership in God’s kingdom is not limited to religious identity or to other external circumstances? Do I harbor an unconscious sense that my affinity group (religion, ethnicity, university affiliation, country of origin, etc) is better than others, or even more beloved by God?
  • “Dogs” was a Jewish name for Gentiles, and Jesus’ expression raised no eyebrows in his own time, when ethnic and tribal loyalty in the face of danger from the outside was the norm. Many of us have more unconscious tribal tendencies than we want to admit to. Do I have epithets or subtle exclusionary names for the “others” in my life?
    Does my parish or my social group provide welcome for “the other”, for the outsider?
  • Have I ever felt like an “outsider”?
  • Have I ever participated in an inter-religious dialogue?
    What happened?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Jesus’ tone in much of the exchange with the non-Jewish woman seems rather exclusionary. In this very story, Jesus’ assumptions about certain groups in our present day might be:

  • Would he exclude certain groups of people from our worship assemblies?
  • Would the newcomer to our country find a warm welcome in his church?
  • Would he favor the benefactors over the welfare mothers and their crying infants in the back row?
  • Would he want teenagers to dress according to code?
  • Does he hear the prayer of someone who hasn’t prayed in thirty years as much as he does the devout nun in a monastery?
  • Does he confirm the notions of those exclusive Christians who see all others as “infidels” of one kind or another?

Are any of these possibilities above a reality in today’s religious groups, including mine?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Could we treat this pagan woman’s dialogue with Jesus as a prayer of petition and her response as a prayerful and honest reaction expressing her disappointment and feistiness? How often is our Prayer “sanitized”—expressing what we think God wants to hear? In many of the psalms (often called Psalms of Lamentation) we see a people who are honest and raw in their feelings about life, and willing to share their frustrations with God. Read selections from Psalm 42, then write your own honest psalm about where you are in your life right now:

4My tears have become my bread, by day, by night,
as they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

10I will say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning oppressed by the foe?”
11With a deadly wound in my bones, my enemies revile me,
saying to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

I read selections from psalm 69:

2Save me, O God, for the waters have risen to my neck.
3I have sunk into the mud of the deep, where there is no foothold.
I have entered the waters of the deep, where the flood overwhelms me.
4I am wearied with crying aloud; my throat is parched.
My eyes are wasted away with waiting for my God.
5More numerous than the hairs on my head are those who hate me without cause.
Many are those who attack me, enemies with lies.
What I have never stolen, how can I restore?

9To my own kin I have become an outcast,
a stranger to the children of my mother.

14But I pray to you, O LORD, for a time of your favor.
In your great mercy, answer me, O God, with your salvation that never fails.
15Rescue me from sinking in the mud; from those who hate me, deliver me.
Save me from the waters of the deep,
16lest the waves overwhelm me.  Let not the deep engulf me, nor the pit close its mouth on me.
17LORD, answer, for your mercy is kind; in your great compassion, turn towards me.
18Do not hide your face from your servant;
answer me quickly, for I am in distress.

I consider how many times we as humans turn to God only in times of personal crisis. What am I hoping for when I pray at moments like these? Do I just want to share my anxiety, and yes, my anger? Or do I want to manipulate God into changing the plans set out for my life? Anne Lamott, in Traveling Mercies says:

Here are the two best prayers I know: “Help me, help me, help me”, and “Thank you, thank you, thank you”. A woman I know says, for her morning prayer: ”Whatever”, and then for the evening, “Oh well”, but has conceded that these prayers are more palatable for people without children.

What do I think that prayer is for anyway?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

In the midst of the financial crisis caused by this pandemic, mothers are watching, helpless, as their children go hungry.

In the face of built-in inequality, mothers are watching, frustrated, as their children lack the basic learning tools and experiences to thrive and grow into their potential.

In the face of the opioid crisis, mothers watch in pain as their children succumb to anxiety and hopelessness, seeking escape from the lives they are living.

In the system of institutionalized racism, mothers watch in fear as their young sons are targeted for violence simply because of the color of their skin.

How do we answer the pleas of these mothers, spoken and unspoken? How do we help them nurture and protect their beloved children? The first step would be to learn more about the causes of these social ills. The next step would be to pick one cause that speaks to you personally and use the internet to discover where your resources and your time would be of use in our very community. The CC@S website would be a good place to start; contact Sister Regena Ross for some information on social Justice groups in our Catholic community.

We need to do more than wring our hands. We need to do more than pray. We need to DO!

Poetic Reflection:

How does the following poem from the Rev. Ed Ingebretsen, S.J. capture the care Jesus takes of us in our deepest need?:

“From Narrow Places”

From narrow places
the strength of our voice
rises:

our every breath
is prayer,
the great poem of need,
a constant scattering
of praise.

Early
we reach to God
in the claim of our hearts,
while he,
our father,
mothers us
in his

Poetic Reflection:

This poem by Thomas Merton seems to reflect how deeply Jesus cares for the fate of each one of us. Nevertheless, we possess free will and sometimes He has to stand by and watch us destroy ourselves and the planet we live on:

Slowly, slowly
Comes Christ through the garden
Speaking to the sacred trees
Their branches bear his light
Without harm

Slowly, slowly
Comes Christ through the ruins
Seeking the lost disciple
A timid one
Too literate
To believe words
So he hides
Christ rises on the cornfields
It is only the harvest moon
The disciple
Turns over in his sleep
And murmurs:
“My regret!”

The disciple will awaken
When he knows history
But slowly, slowly
The Lord of History weeps into the fire

—Thomas Merton “Cables to the Ace” (stanza 80)

Closing Prayer

From Sacred Space:

Lord, I want to remember this. When I want something badly, I will persist, even when the answers are not to my liking. Help me to be transformed by whatever answers you give me in my prayer life.