Sunday Meditation: For the Lost Sheep

On the Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year A, Jesus continues His Galilean ministry only for this passage He takes a side trip north.  Why does He go north?  Well, it’s hardly ever mentioned when it comes to the exegesis of this passage, but the clue is in the response to the Canaanite woman.  He tells her He came for the lost sheep of Israel.  Jesus is in the area of the lost ten tribes of Israel who were conquered by the Assyrians and then absorbed into their population.  The lost sheep are gone and only God can reconstitute them.

Matthew chooses to call the woman a “Canaanite.”  This was anachronistic for Matthew’s time.  The people of the area had long ceased to be seen as “Canaanites,” a term from First Temple times, some eight hundred years prior.  In the same corresponding passage in Mark’s Gospel, Mark calls her the Philo-Phoenician woman, and that’s how people in Jesus’ time would have called her.  So Matthew is choosing a term that heightens the enemies of Israel, which would further alienate the woman.

So grasp this.  Jesus is coming to reconstitute the twelve tribes, but ten of them are absorbed into a new, pagan culture.  Within the “Canaanite” woman are both cultures but, in a sense, alienated.  Jesus in response to her request tells her He has come for the lost Jews.  She has identified Jesus as the Mesiah, “Son of David,” and so she reveals her bi-furcated nature.  Through her humility and faith, Jesus transcends the structure of the priority that the children of Israel eat first and the “dogs” eat scraps.  The new pagan culture, through faith, contains the Jewish past. 

Thomas Aquinas in his Homily #4 identifies five aspects of the woman’s response which should serve as a model for us.

 

(1) Humility: “ Yet the dogs eat.” (2) Her patience, since she patiently endured the seeming reproaches of Our Lord. (3) Her prayer, “ Have mercy on me, O Lord.” (4) Her perseverance : she did not cease asking till she obtained what she desired. (5) Her faith: “O woman, great is thy faith.” 

 

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

At that time, Jesus 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 Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.

Jesus' 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 Jesus 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 the woman's daughter was healed from that hour.

~Mt: 15:21-28

 

 

 

For the exegetical homily, I’m going to turn to Fr. Mike Schmidt who I think zeros in on why this passage is so powerful.  Let’s set aside the historical context and let Fr. Mike focus on the spiritual.

 

 

Fr. Mike:

If you've ever been in a situation where there's you know some kind of like medical emergency or not even medical emergency but typically situation where the you've tried all of your options like you've exhausted all of your options whether that be you know a joint has failed and you're like man I'm in so much pain or maybe there's like a cancer diagnosis and you went through all of the treatments sometimes it's a mental health issue where you're like I I've seen a counselor I've tried medication all these things where it seems like, okay, there's and there's and there's no other option. There's no other you're desperate. You've ever been in that situation where you're just so desperate, like you've tried everything and nothing has helped, and you find yourself in the exact same place as you were before, but you're not even in the exact same place as you were before. You're in a worse place because before you tried all these other options, uh you had hope.  But after having tried everything and nothing's worked, you realize, is there room for hope?  And this is the place of desperation, right? And this again, this is the place that a lot of us can find ourselves and probably a lot of us will find, maybe all of us will find ourselves at some point in our life where we have tried everything and nothing's helped. We've tried everything and nothing has worked.

 

Now, I I've talked to some people who will see that the intercessory petitionary prayer, they will see that as kind of like a less than prayer where it's that that's for those people who don't really trust God. And you know, a couple weeks ago again, I I I mentioned this. I said that sometimes people ask me, "Hey, Father Mike, what do you need prayers for?" And my answer is often times, I don't know. I I just I know that God I know that God knows and I know that God is give me going to give me the best.  And so there that's a certain level of trust, right? a certain level of trust where we basically do say that we say, "God, I trust you that you're going to give me what I need." Petitionary prayer, intercessory prayer, we know that that's not for those who are less spiritually advanced for a couple reasons. Number one is because Jesus did do petitionary prayer. Jesus did do intercessory prayer and we are not more advanced than Jesus. That's the number that's the first thing we have to understand. The second thing is this that approaching God to again prayer is a petition where we are interceding on behalf of ourselves or someone else.  That kind of prayer asking God for what we know or what we need or what we want.  It's an exercise of what it is to be a son or daughter of God. I mean just imagine if we if we didn't approach the Lord with our with our needs or we didn't approach the Lord with our wants that could be a sign that we're not willing to open our hearts to God and and tell him and show him our hearts.

 

The third thing is this. I think there's a certain kind of trust. Again, there is a real trust that says, "God, you know best, so I won't even ask." Again, I think that's not bad. That's a certain kind of trust. God, you know best, I won't even ask. There's also a kind of trust that says, God, you know best. So, I will ask for what I want. I will ask for what I need and then I will trust that you will give me the best. And I think that's even a deeper trust. It's one thing to just be like, hands off, God, you give me whatever you you need to give me.  There's a deeper kind of trust that says, God, I'm going I know you're going to give me what's best. I'm also going to reveal my heart to you. I'm going to ask you for something and then I'm going to trust that you give me what is best because again that is a profound act of trust because we know this. We know that God can have it. God will answer. We know that God's answers are at least three things. He one of at least three things. He could say yes. He could say no. He could say wait.  We know that when we come before God like the Canaanite woman in the gospel today and we're desperate and we say God this is what I need. He can say yes. He can say no. And he can say wait. So here's the question.  When I ask when I'm desperate, when I come before God and say God, this is what I need or this is what I want. The question is this.  Can God tell me no? Can God tell me no?  The further question is, what do I do when God tells me no?  I love this. What happened in the Gospels? Well, what someone might say is that she persists. Maybe even they would say that she argues with Jesus maybe.  But the first thing that she does is Jesus tells her no.  And she stays. This is this is this is so so important.  Jesus gives his answer. Jesus tells her no.  And she stays there. Question. Can God tell me no and I won't go anywhere?  Because our temptation, my temptation, our our temptation is to be mercenaries, right? To give our to give our hearts to the high to the highest bidder, to give our faith, to give our trust, to give our allegiance to the highest bidder.

Trust is what is at the heart of the Canaanite woman’s appeal. 

 

For the pastoral homily I’m going to turn to Cardinal Blase Cupich who focuses on the differences of the in group and the out group.

 

 

Cardinal Cupich:

Established groups can very easily fall into the temptation, the trap of defining who's in and who is out, who belongs and who doesn't, a difference between us and them.  We see that so often in society and it can happen even in the life of the church. People who are veterans of the faith begin to act as though they're quite settled with their own community where they can be their own insular group, a self-referential community as Pope Francis often spoke of, and even tie themselves to a political party as though they are a political party at prayer.  But what we see in Isaiah the prophet and in Jesus words in the Gospel of Matthew today is that that is a temptation we should put aside.  And we see this in this story of this Canaanite woman. She indeed is a foreigner, speaks a different language, is a pagan.  And yet she comes to Jesus with a need.  And at first, of course, the disciples want to send her away. She's a bother to us. And Jesus even recognizes the prejudice in their heart to the point where the cruelty of that line.  The dogs in fact should not be given the master's food.  He says that to unveil and show the cruelty of categorizing people according to those who belong and those who don't.  But instead, what comes to the surface is her need as a human being, as a mother for her child, about her human dignity that cuts across all of those prejudices and categorizations we make of people.

 

Three years ago when this passage came up in the lectionary, I offered this interpretation as to why Jesus refers to her as a dog.  I want to re-emphasize it because I think Cardinal Cupich is alluding to similar.

 

Jesus and the apostles have been walking in a foreign country and come across lots of pagans.  The apostles being sinners and proud of their heritage mumbling to each other lots of what we would call racist language as they talk about people they see.  Jesus overhears them and picks up on this language not to insult the woman but to bring down the pride of his Jewish apostles.  It is the apostles who are cut to the heart. 

Cardinal Cupich:

Sometime later, Jesus would say to them, "If you have faith and do not doubt, if you say And here is this woman who shows her human dignity as someone who can love, love her daughter and she is asking Jesus to show that same love for her.  It's so very important in our lives to make sure we examine ourselves from time to time within the life of the church, but also in society that we do not create these boundaries and these walls to the point where we disregard the real human needs of others, the dignity of people, feeling as though we can cast them aside like the disciples wanted to do because they're going to make some demands on us or they're a bother to us.

Without being political, I see exactly what Cardinal Cupich is alluding to, and I agree.

 

 

 

Sunday Meditation: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

 

 

How about this lovely hymn for today, “Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All/”

 

Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all

How can I love Thee as I ought?

And, how revere this wondrous gift

So far surpassing hope or thought?

 

Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore

O, make us love Thee more and more

 

Had I but Mary's sinless heart

To love Thee with, my dearest King

O with what bursts of fervent praise

Thy goodness, Jesus, would I sing

 

Sound, sound His praises higher still,

And come, ye angels, to our aid,

'Tis God, 'tis God, the very God

Whose power both man and angels made

 

 

Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore!