Cycle (A) 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time


Is. 56:1, 6-7; Rom. 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt. 15:21-28

Today's Reading from the Gospel of Matthew, [Mt. 15:21-28] the account of Jesus and the Canaanite woman, is one of the rare encounters of Jesus with Gentiles. Most likely this woman heard of the great miracles that Jesus was performing towards the Jewish people. Hence she took it upon herself to personally locate Jesus and to beg His mercy on her. In Deuteronomy and post-deuteronomic literature, the Canaanites were viewed as a very sinful race that embodied every possible evil and godlessness. The Canaanites were viewed as a nation that was to be exterminated. It was not the general practice for the Jewish people to mix with the Canaanites. So, when Jesus was approached by woman from a race that was avoided by the Jewish people, at first, he ignored her. He did not answer her at all. [Mt. 15:23] The more Jesus ignored her, the more the woman shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!" The more the woman shouted, the more the disciples of Jesus were getting annoyed and urged Jesus to send her away so she would stop shouting.

[Mt. 15:23] The determined woman did not want to give up on Jesus. She threw herself at His feet and repeated herself, "Lord, help me." [Mt. 15:25] Jesus responded, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." [Mt. 15:26] To this, she answered, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." [Mt. 15:27] Seeing how great her faith was, she having remarkably persisted, Jesus told her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed instantly." [Mt. 15:28]

There are certain things about this woman that we must learn. First and foremost, she had love. She made the misery of her child her own. It was love for her child that made her approach this stranger; it was love for her child that made her accept his silence and yet still appeal; it was love for her child that enabled her to endure the apparent rebuffs; and it was love for her child that helped her to see the compassion in the words of Jesus.

There is an incident reported during the China Earth quake. After the Earthquake had subsided, when the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman's house, they saw her body through the cracks. But her pose was somehow strange that she knelt on her knees; her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supporting an object. The house had collapsed on her. With so many difficulties, the leader of the rescuer team put his hand through a narrow gap on the wall to reach the woman's body. He hoped that this woman could be still alive. However, the cold and stiff body told him that she had passed away for sure. They left this house and were going to search the next collapsed building. For some reasons, the team leader was driven by a compelling force to go back to the ruined house of the dead woman. Again, he knelt down and used his hand through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement," A child! There is a child! “The whole team worked together; carefully they removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3 months old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket under his mother's dead body. Obviously, the woman had made an ultimate sacrifice for saving her son. When her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.

Jesus saw such a sacrificial love in the Canaanite woman. The driving force of her heart was love; and there is nothing nearer to God than love. And Jesus recognized her love for her child and rewarded her by granting her request.

Secondly, this woman had faith. It was her faith that made her call Jesus "Son of David". It was a popular and political title. It was a title that looked on Jesus as a great wonder worker. This is a title that projected Jesus as a great and powerful man. So, she put her trust in the earthly aspect of Jesus. But Jesus made her look beyond the earthly, and in him she recognized something that was not expressible in earthly terms. Jesus changed her faith in the wonder worker to a faith that worshipped. She began by following and ended up on her knees. She began with a request and ended in prayer.

This is a great lesson we have to learn from this woman. Often, our approach to Jesus, too, is the same. Our petitions remain at the temporal and mundane level. But Jesus invites us to go beyond. "If God answers your prayer, He is increasing your faith. If He delays He is increasing your patience. If He doesn't answer, He has something better for you."(Dato Vijay Eswaran – In the sphere of silence). This is what we see in the life of the Canaanite woman. Hence, when we feel that our prayers are not answered be assured that He has something better for us.

Thirdly, this woman had indomitable persistence. She did not come to Jesus as a possible helper, but she looked upon him as her only hope. She came with a passionate hope. She came to him with a clamant need; and she refused to be discouraged. Prayer for her was the outpouring of her passionate need. Hence she could not accept a "no" for answer. She went on till she received what she wanted, an ultimate "yes" from Jesus. She was focused on what she wanted. Hence, she ignored the crowd around her; she ignored the disciples; she ignored the comments of the people. She was focused on what she wanted.

There was once an arrow maker who had a shop in one of the streets of a tiny village in ancient India. One day, a king's procession passed by while he was busy shaping and making each arrow perfect. The magnificent procession went past and not once did he look up. Dattatreya, a sage who was passing through the village at that time, crossed the street and asked the arrow maker if he saw the procession. The arrow maker asked him, "What procession?" Dattatreya immediately prostrated himself before the arrow maker and told him, "You are my guru."

The story of the Canaanite woman teaches us to grow in love, faith and to be focused on what we want to achieve in life. Then it is certain that we will strive till we turn all the "nos" to "yes". May God help us.

Satish