Sunday, August 18, 2002
20th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Is 56:1, 6-7
Thus says Yahweh: Maintain what is right and do what is just, for my
salvation is close at hand, my justice is soon to come.
Yahweh says to the foreigners who join him, serving him and loving his
name, keeping his sabbath unprofaned and remaining faithful to his covenant:
I will bring them to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of
prayer. I will accept on my altar their burnt offerings and sacrifices,
for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.
2nd Reading: Rom 11:13-15, 29-32
Brothers and sisters, Listen to me, you who are not Jews: I am spending
myself as an apostle to the pagan nations, but I hope my ministry will
be successful enough to awaken the jealousy of those of my race, and finally
to save some of them. If the world made peace with God when they remained
apart, what will it be when they are welcomed? Nothing less than a passing
from death to life. The call of God and his gift cannot be nullified.
Through the rebellion of the Jews the mercy of God came to you who did
not obey God. They in turn will receive mercy in due time after this rebellion
that brought God's mercy to you. So God has submitted all to disobedience,
in order to show his mercy to all.
Gospel:
Mt 15:21-28
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Now a Canaanite
woman came from those borders and began to cry out, "Lord, Son of
David, have pity on me! My daughter is tormented by a demon." But
Jesus did not answer her, not even a word. So his disciples approached
him and said, "Send her away: see how she is shouting after us."
Then Jesus said to her, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the
nation of Israel."
But the woman was already kneeling before Jesus and said, "Sir, help
me!" Jesus answered, "It is not right to take the bread from
the children and throw it to the little dogs." The woman replied,
"It is true, sir, but even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall
from their master's table." Then Jesus said, "Woman, how great
is your faith! Let it be as you wish." And her daughter was healed
at that moment.
Commentary
As human beings, part and parcel of our limitations is our personal, cultural, and social conditioning. Jesus, partaking of our humanity, was not free from these. But like all great men and women, he was able to see through the fallacy of such conditionings. A Jew, much less a religious teacher, ought not to consort with a non-Jew. If there is any saying of Jesus that must be historical, it is his use of the typically derogatory title of "little dogs" for non-Jews. God's loving mercy is, indeed, for all and does not discriminate. It is truly good news that even the historical Jesus could not be limited to other Jews. It was a non-Jew and a woman at that who broke his cultural blinders to the inherent human good in the human heart. A great challenge to all of us, who are used to classify those who belong and do not belong - a far cry from the truly catholic view (from Greek kath-holos) of seeing things in their totality.