The faith of the Canaanite woman
It's the 20th Sunday in ordinary time and today's gospel reading brings the Catholic faithful a strong and powerful message of love, which we all know is one of the traits of God, after all the book written by retired Pope Benedict XVI during his papacy was entitled "Deus Caritas Est" or "God is Love". Today's Gospel comes from Matt.15: 21-28 entitled "Jesus and the Canaanite Woman."
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly." 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." 24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."
25 The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.
26 He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs."
27 "Yes it is, Lord," she said. "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." 28 Then Jesus said to her, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted and her daughter was healed at that moment.
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This gospel story is one of the most profound stories to come out of the New Testament. Firstly, Jesus was talking with a woman, which in Ancient Palestine was a no-no! Women were considered chattel in those days and should not approach men, especially a man known to others as a Rabbi. Second and perhaps the most important issue of all is that the woman was no ordinary woman but a Canaanite! If you read the Old Testament, the land of Canaan was the "Promised Land" that was given to the Jews through Moses by God himself. Hence Joshua, who succeeded Moses with the aid of God destroyed the Canaanite city of Jericho and killed its inhabitants. Hence Jews and Canaanites do not see eye-to-eye.
But the Canaanite woman approached Jesus asking for his help to cure her daughter who was possessed by a demon. But Jesus did not even care to respond to her plea. This emboldened his disciples to ask the Lord to send the woman away. Only then did the Lord Jesus respond to her pleas for help saying, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." But the woman was not deterred and knelt and worshipped the Lord, repeating her plea.
This time, the Lord Jesus replied to her pleas of mercy, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs." But the Canaanite woman wasn't about to argue with Jesus who was a Jew and replied to him, "Yes it is, Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." Then the Lord Jesus said to her, "Woman, you have great faith! Let it be done as you wish." Then the woman's daughter was healed.
This conversation recorded in the gospel gives us an idea of the Love of God, which doesn't recognize any political or social boundaries. Jesus was actually sending a message to his disciples that he wasn't about to condemn the Canaanites like what all Jews do. Secondly, I suspect that when initially the Lord Jesus didn't care to respond to the woman's pleas, he was probably testing her faith. Of course, I believe that the Canaanite woman must have known that the Lord Jesus Christ who came from Galilee had a reputation of healing the sick and casting out demons from possessed persons.
But if you want to know why the Lord Jesus gave in to the Canaanite woman's pleas, she had a strong faith proven by the fact that she addressed the Lord as the Son of David. This was one of the titles of Jesus that he probably did not expect to come from a Canaanite woman. But perhaps what struck the Lord was her persistence to have her child healed. That persistence could only be her love for her daughter. Remember the woman did not ask anything for herself but she asked only that Jesus heal her daughter. So all we need is a strong faith and the love for her daughter that the Canaanite woman possessed.
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