The Canaanite woman in today’s gospel was awesome. She was no meek, mild, or humble person, yet Jesus said she had “great faith”. It was because of her great faith that he healed her daughter, even though he didn’t really want to do so. This woman just wouldn’t give up. She kept bugging Jesus until he finally answered her.
It sounds like Jesus had to stop think about the right thing to do, if he should heal the Canaanite woman’s daughter or not, because she wasn’t a Jew. The gospel said that the woman kept calling out to him, but at first, “Jesus did not say a word to answer her.” When he did answer her, he told her that he was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel.
The Canaanite woman still begged him to heal her daughter. Finally Jesus said, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” And this is the absolutely amazing part, that the Canaanite woman did not take no for an answer, even from Jesus. She had the audacity to respond to his objection! She also willingly accepted his view of her. The Canaanite woman knew her place and acknowledged Christ’s position of authority over her, as a healer and holy man of God, but she stood up to him none the less.
In the second reading for Mass today, Saint Paul does not extoll the virtues of humility very much either. He said, “I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous … the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.”
Like Jesus in today’s gospel though, Saint Paul showed mercy toward sinners. He basically said that we were once sinners who disobeyed God and then received His mercy, and now it is other people who disobey God, and they too would receive God’s mercy. The end of the first reading said that, “God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.”
It might help to remember that even the saints disobeyed God, in little ways (and sometimes big ways too, before their conversions). Even after their conversions, they still had to go to confession just like the rest of us. Only their confessors knew the extent of their personal sins though. An absence of venial sin is also not the main path to sainthood. Love is. The saints were not perfect people, they just continued to try to love God, Jesus, and other people more deeply and as a result of this, they often sinned less. Their love is what lives on, (not the memory of their venial sins after their conversions.) Sometimes it seems that a lot of Catholics are overly focused on eliminating venial sins, rather than increasing their love and service to others. Avoiding mortal sin, while increasing our love for God and serving Him is a good balance.
The first reading for Mass today says pretty much the same thing:
“Observe what is right, do what is just … keep the sabbath … hold to my covenant … join themselves to the Lord, ministering to him, loving the name of the Lord, and becoming his servants.”
The reason we even remember the last verse in today’s first reading, is because of Christ’s love for his Father:
“… their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
We remember Jesus’s love for his Father, in the strong words he spoke when he drove the money changers out of the temple:
He said to them, “It is written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’;
but you are making it a den of robbers.”
Then, Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple with a whip.
Today’s scriptures for Mass show us that we do not need to be meek, mild and humble every single moment of our lives, or be perfect people either, in order to have great faith in God, or imitate Christ’s life, the Apostles, or the saints.
There’s a time to be humble, and a time to be assertive, and prayer can help us to figure out which one is appropriate, to the different situations we find ourselves in every day.
Sunday Mass Readings:
Isaiah 56: 1, 6-7 / Psalm 67 / Romans 11: 13-15, 29-31 / Matthew 15: 21-28
