(Homily 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr-A)
A closer and profound reflection on
the word of God this Sunday reveals that the recurrent themes are that
of faith and the universal call to salvation, the kingdom of God is
proposed to all, without discrimination. If we have a throwback on last
Sunday's Gospel, we see Peter, a man of little faith. Contrarily, at the heart
of today's Gospel is a woman of great faith. Peter was an insider, but
today we reckon with an outsider. Indeed, experience brings to our
consideration that it is often the case that faith is not found where
it is expected and many a times, it is found in abundance where it is least
expected. No doubt, we can be taken aback at the faith of some and the lack
of faith of some others. Many contemporaries of Jesus might have been surprised
and even offended seeing the godless foreigners streaming into the house of
God. Behold, it is upon such consciousness that Isaiah in the first
reading (Is. 56:1.6-7) prophesized about the openness and
inclusiveness of God’s temple to all. And in the Gospel, Jesus went against all
odds to reach-out to the pagan woman (Mt. 15:21-28). While
Paul in the second reading (Rm. 11:13-15.29-32) was surprised
and disappointed that his own race, the people of God, rejected the Gospel,
while the Gentiles embraced it. Above all else, the readings of this
Sunday implicitly warn us of the danger of pre-judging, categorizing, and
segregating others. God works in marvelous ways according to His will and timing.
But many a times our own attitude is best reflected in the behaviour of the
disciples in today's Gospel: the readiness to categorize others, for they
wanted Jesus to send her away as quickly as possible. However, contrary to
their request, Jesus reached out to the woman. Her supplication of “Kyrie
eleison” did not go unanswered, because in and through Jesus, the
Father was showing mercy to all mankind as St. Paul envisioned in the second
reading.
In the first reading (Is.
56:1.6-7) we see an adequate emphasis on the universalistic
dimension of salvation, as opposed to the exclusivist mentality of the Jews,
according which salvation and the Kingdom of God were reserved privileges for
them. But contrarily, God through the words of prophet Isaiah in this
passage establishes the universal and in-discriminatory nature of his salvation
and Kingdom. God is a God for all and his salvation is boundless. As
prophet Isaiah affirmed: “As for foreigners who adhere to Yahweh to serve him,
to love Yahweh’s name and become his servants, all who observe the Sabbath, not
profaning it, and cling to my covenant” (v.6) and in
subsequent verse God through the mouth of his prophet declared: “for my house
will be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (v.7). This
passage brings us to the context of the Israelites before Christ. Here the
distinction is clear, at one end, the Jews, the chosen people, at the other
side, all the other peoples. Humanity was divided in Jews and Gentiles. The
temptation of the first to close themselves and consider others impure was
strong. But however, there was an open door, and that is the fact that
“foreigners can adhere to Yahweh to serve him”. In line with the theme of
universality of God’s salvation and Kingdom, the Psalmist in the
responsorial psalm proclaims the universal dominion of Yahweh on all peoples:
“The earth will acknowledge your ways and all nations your power to save” (Ps.
67:2) and he invites all the peoples to recognize the Lord and be
united in his praise: “Let the nations praise you, God, let all the nations
praise you”. Still in this passage we can make a second
consideration, if we paid attention, we must have noticed that one of the
conditions given by God in order to be considered no longer strangers in His house,
but pleasing to his sight is the injunction: “all who observe the Sabbath and
not profaning it” (v.6c). And we see this injunction emphatically
in the third commandment “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy”. For us
Christians the Sabbath is Sunday. But today the sense and meaning of
this prescription is gradually being relegated. For many Sunday has become
a day of leisure and fun, if not for profanation and sin, emptied of its
religious content. For those who clamour for their liberty to do what they
like, the command and prescription of God is not a threat to our
freedom.
In the Gospel (Mt. 15:21-28) of
today Jesus goes outside the territory of Israel, he went to the side of
commercial cities like Tyre and Sidon, a pagan territory. And in this location,
he meets with a woman of this place, who implored him, shouting: “have mercy on
me Lord, my daughter is tormented by a devil”. In Mathew’s narrative the
earthly activity of Jesus remains limited to inhabited regions of Israel.
However, the evangelist Mathew expanded Jesus’ sojourn even into Gentile
territory, where the incident with the Canaanite woman took place. This episode
was equally narrated by Mark (7:24-30). On responding to his disciples
who asked Him to ‘give the woman what she wants’, He answered them: “I was sent
only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v.24), somehow
reinstating the perspective of (Mt. 10:5b-6), when he was sending
his disciples he told them not to go to pagan territory, nor Samaritan town,
but to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. We may ask, why did
Jesus issue such a directive? Did Jesus not come to bring salvation to all? God’s
program was that salvation was to be announced first to the people of Israel.
Even though it was to be preached to them first, it is not to remain or stop
there. However, the woman’s great faith moved Him to perform the healing. The
attitude of the disciples who asked Jesus to send the woman away is similar to
their reaction to the crowds at the occasion of the multiplication of
bread (Mt. 14:15), and this is the particularity of Mathew. For our
evangelist Mathew this episode looks forward to the faith of the pagans (the
Gentiles) and as a matter of fact, this episode is similar to Jesus’ encounter
with the centurion (Mt. 8:1-13); whereas for Mark this encounter is
an exception to Jesus’ healing ministry. Indeed, the account of Mathew is more
detailed and he used occasion of this episode to underline his theological
perspective of universal salvation.
At the centre of the Gospel
narrative is the Cannanite woman, who approached Jesus, pleading for a miracle
for the daughter, but what she could get was an apparent indifference from
Jesus. However, impressed by her faith, Jesus hearkened to her
supplications. Jesus pulled down the walls of hatred and discrimination
existing between the Jews and the Gentiles. What matters henceforth is no
longer belongingness to a particular race, but faith in Him: “Woman, your faith
is great”. What matters is faith, not observance of the law, faith
that breaks barriers and renders little dogs guests. Truly, the unusual,
incomprehensible attitude and comportment of Jesus is thought provoking, he
does not say a word to her. He ignored her, and even the apostles were
embarrassed by the shouts of the woman, and they implored Jesus: “Hear her, see
how she is shouting following us”. Yet to the apostles Jesus responded with
some dints of rejection thus: “I was only sent for the lost sheep of the house
of Israel” Invariably, Jesus declares that his mission is first of all to the
people of Israel, and afterwards he will go beyond the borders of Israel, and
to the whole world. This passage raises some interrogations, for
instance: what does Jesus intend when He said: “I was sent only to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v.24). Certainly, it is not the fact
that he doesn’t feel sent to all peoples, rather that He will reach all peoples
through faith and conversion of the Israel. God was fulfilling his
promises made to the descendants of Abraham, so that the promises He was going
to make to all the peoples will be credible.
The woman came closer to Jesus and
with insistence, she continued her supplication, she prostrates before Jesus:
“My Lord, help me”. Yet Jesus responded once again with rejection: “It is not
fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (that is bread for
the chosen people). The woman all the same does not give up, she is
even contented with the pieces of bread that falls from the table, as she
responded, “It is true Lord, but also the dogs can eat the piece that fall from
the table of the master”. At that moment, Jesus could no longer put any
resistance (in fact, I would say he could no longer continue his pretence), he had to give up, and accomplish a miracle in the pagan
territory. And he exclaimed: “woman, indeed your faith is great! Let
it be done unto you as you desire! And from that moment her daughter was
healed”.
Then, we have to ask ourselves
the reason why Jesus delayed in hearkening to the words of the woman, what was
behind the unusual indifferent attitude of Jesus? Why was he apparently
indifferent to the pleading of the poor woman? May be to affirm
categorically his fidelity to the mission for which the Father sent him, which
has to do in primis with the chosen people and later to
others. May be! St. Augustine in his commentary on this
episode affirms that Jesus delayed in granting the woman’s supplications in
order to increase in her the desire, in order to make her faith and hope more
fervent and profound. This is also possible. St. John Chrysostom,
on his part posits that Jesus delayed in order to uplift or “upgrade” the faith
of the woman. This hypothesis is equally possible. There is another
consideration, that Jesus delayed in reaching out to the woman in order to
gradually draw the attention of his disciples to the ways and workings of God
and the need for a great faith in God.
From the existential and practical
standpoints, the virtues of this woman are being proposed to us as an example
and model, of a fervent and great faith:
·
As a wonderful example
of faith in Christ, her trust in him never
wavered, she never gave up, even when Jesus used denigrating words on her.
·
As a stupendous model of
perseverance in prayer: she knocks, insists,
implores without giving up hope or getting discouraged because of Jesus’
resistance.
·
As a great example of
humility, she does not rebel because she was ignored and
less considered by Jesus, instead she was contented with the pieces like a dog.
We are therefore invited today to admire and imitate the good
examples and virtues of this woman: her faith and immense trust in Jesus, her
insistent prayer, perseverance and heroic humility. Many a times, we equally
experience what could be defined as “the silence of God”, the
apparent resistance by God to grant us the graces we hold to be necessary for
our good. Sometimes, even, we experience the opposite of what we hope and ask
for in prayer. In such situations, our mistake generally is the temptation or
tendency to get discouraged, of desisting or even to rebel against God instead
of insisting in prayer. The silence of God or the delay in granting our
supplications does not mean that He does not listen to our supplications.
May be, the Lord wants to test us because he is preparing a greater thing for
us. Certainly, he will give us a reward if we persevere in prayer and continue
to have trust in him. Let us learn how to say: Lord, I ask you this grace,
however let your will be done, help me to do your will. You know too well what
is for my good. I trust in you!
This Gospel passage reminds us of
the episode when the disciples reported to Jesus that there are those “who were
casting out demons without” but are not his followers, they wanted Him to stop
them, but Jesus responded them: “who is not against us, is with us” (Mk.9:38).
This is apparently contrary to what He said elsewhere in another circumstance:
“who is not with me is against me, and who does not gather with me
scatters” (Lk.11:23). In reality, the two responses or sentences
can be integrated, if we see it from the perspective that at one He was
referring to His disciples and at the other, He was referring to outsiders. We
can’t but remember the words of Peter to the first pagan welcomed to the
Christian community: “I now really understand, he said, that God has no
favourites, but anybody of any nationality who fears him and does what is right
is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35). It is evident in the
episode of the Gospel and in the Pauline epistle that it is no longer
belongingness to a race or a nation that gives guarantee for salvation, but
faith in Christ, which is implicitly possible for all.
In the passage of the second
reading (Rm. 11:13-15.29-32), the concept of the universal
call to salvation, or the will of God for all to be saved, assumed a
paradoxical consideration, for God as St. Paul writes “has subjected all to
disobedience, in order to show mercy to all” (v. 32). For the
Romans prior to the coming of Christ were disobedient (pagans), but after the
disobedience of the Jews that did not welcome Christ, the Romans were shown
mercy and the kingdom of God was opened to them. And even for the Jews
that did not welcome the gift of God, St. Paul expresses an optimism in the
hope that they too will be converted, for he says that “the gift and the
call of God are irrevocable” (v.15). Unfortunately, one can decide
to resist the divine call and invitation. This passage prospects us to a
situation that is quite different. Now the election and salvation has passed to
the Gentiles. So what is the attitude they should have before the Jews? There
should not be any discrimination or racism. The Jews remain the chosen people,
their incredulity served providentially for the opening of salvation to all
peoples. There should be no boast whatsoever, before them by the new chosen
people. Paul leaves a glimmer of hope: the Jews one day will receive
mercy. Attention however, for what happened to the Israelites could
happen to us.
In all, therefore, the overriding message
emanating from the readings of this Sunday is that there should not be barriers
between peoples. No one is a stranger before God. Thus, the readings remind us that we cannot possess God for
ourselves, that God can never be the exclusive property of a particular group
or set of people. God cannot be conditioned by human ideas, inclinations and
prejudices, He is always greater and bigger than our ideas of Him and He cannot
in anyway be contained in our often narrow views of Him. God declared: “I will
be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy” (Ex. 33:19). Thus, in
concrete terms, the word of God today invites us to reflect on the attitude we
should have towards those around us who are not Christians. For those of us
who tend to be God’s Chief Justice or deputy Jesus, we are invited to imbibe
the inclusive attitude of Jesus, and abandon our own exclusive and judgmental
attitudes. We are called to show
forth in our lives the inclusiveness of God. May God help us to close the
barriers of hatred and prejudices in our life. Amen!
(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
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