August 20, 2017

20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 20)

The Woman Who Conquered Christ With Her Faith

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

Based upon the reflections of Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa: “Gettate le Reti” (2001) Anno A pp. 264-268
 
Our Lord’s actions may often appear surprising and even disconcerting. We see this in today’s Gospel account when a Canaanite woman, a pagan, pleads with him: “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon.” Surprisingly, Jesus “did not say a word to her.” But she would not be put off, she kept calling after him. To the apostles she was a nuisance to be sent away. Jesus gives a second disconcerting response: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Jesus was affirming that the Gospel was to be preached first to the Jews and later to the Gentiles. Basically Jesus says to the woman, your time will come, but not now.

We probably would have gone away, offended, scandalized, and mumbling to ourselves: “How could Jesus, friend of the poor and afflicted treat me in this way?” Not the Canaanite. She would not be deterred by the Lord’s rebuffs. She goes further prostrating herself before Jesus: “Lord, I pray you, help me!”

Then comes the most disconcerting response of Jesus: “It is not right to take the food of children and throw it to the dogs.” The children are the Jews. The dogs are the pagans. At this point, anyone would have run away infuriated! Not the Canaanite…she is steadfast.

Reflecting on this scene, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa uses the image of pole vaulting. What happens in pole vaulting? With every successful vault, the bar is raised a little higher to see how far one can go to clear it.

The same happens in faith. With every obstacle we overcome, God raises the bar challenging us to greater faith. This is what Jesus did with the woman. The woman makes this final ‘vault” and responds twisting Jesus’ imagery to her advantage: “Please Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

Jesus who had “tussled” with her thus far explodes in joy, as if he were a “fan” seeing a record breaking pole vault: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” At that moment, her daughter was healed.

Yet something more occurred, another miracle, greater than the healing of the daughter. The woman becomes a believer, the pagan-a disciple! If Jesus had responded to her first request, all would have ended with the healing of her daughter. But now, a disciple is born!

How often we pray for something for weeks, months, even years—but nothing. God seems deaf, unconcerned. The Canaanite woman is our model for perseverance in prayer. She seems to have taken literally, without knowing it, the words of Isaiah: “O you, who are to remind the Lord, take no rest and give no rest to him.” (62:6). She did not let Jesus rest.

Jesus could easily be viewed as hard or insensitive toward the woman. But now we know what was in the heart of Jesus that made him act in such a way. He knew she could have turned away, but he was raising the bar…to allow great faith to be born in her.

God so often does the same with us. His seeming delay or silence is a call to greater faith and more intense prayer that should bring us to see things in a new way…to realize that what God wants for us for us far greater than what we may ask.

St. Augustine admired the Canaanite woman. He dedicated three homilies to her and always mentions her when he speaks of “praying always.” He called her “the woman who conquered Jesus with her faith.” Perhaps she reminded him so much of his mother Monica who for years in tears prayed for the conversion of her son. She did become discouraged or despair. Augustine would become a bishop and saint! In one of his homilies, he recalled the words of Christ: “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you” and concluded by saying, “This is what the Canaanite woman did: she asked, she sought, she knocked at the door and received.” Let us also do the same.