This woman has so much to teach us!

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Is 56,1.6-7; Rom 11,13-15.29-32; Mt 15,21-28

I do not want to be accused of instigating rivalry between Gospel characters this morning. They say that comparisons are odious but I cannot help to point out just one comparison, one contrast. There is a very strong contrast between last Sunday's Gospel and today's? Last week, Jesus called out to Peter, telling him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Today, he calls onto the woman and tells her, "O woman, great is your faith!" I do not think that the contrast is coincidental. Peter symbolises the church and Matthew the Evangelist wants to show us that we have much to learn from the Canaanite woman and her strong faith!

The Canaanite woman can teach many lessons as individuals and as a Church, as a Christian community. I will identify three: perseverance in prayer, salvation to those on the peripheries and mission of the Church.

Perseverance in prayer

First, the Canaanite woman was a woman in need: her daughter was very sick, tormented by a demon and she wanted Jesus to heal her. How many times, like her, we approach Jesus and plead with him to receive some grace or other but yet get no answer. Our prayers seem to fall on deaf ears. Well, here we have a woman who proves to be for us a teacher and a model of perseverance in prayer. It is interesting how Jesus' silence leads to the disciples to intervene, to intercede - albeit somewhat reluctantly - on behalf of the woman.

About Jesus' silence here, St Augustine says, "Christ showed himself indifferent towards her not in order to refuse her his mercy but rather to inflame her desire for it." St Augustine also sees his own mother, Monica, in the Canaanite woman. We all know how many tears St Monica shed in prayer for years on end for the conversion of her son until she finally saw him be baptised not long before she died. I know that there are many mothers who can sympathise a lot with St Monica and who long to see their sons and daughters embrace their Catholic faith again. So many other people cry out to God for many other graces and do not give in to despair not even in times of discouragement.

Our God is not an ATM, one of those money dispensers where you feed in a card and money comes out. Our God is not a Transactional God, where you pay a number of prayers and expect to gain what you have prayed for. Our God is a Relational God, with whom, as we go deeper into our relationship, we gain a better understanding of ourselves, of God and of the situation we are passing through. God listens to our prayers in God's time and in God's ways!

Salvation to those in the peripheries: geographic and existential

Second, the Canaanite was a woman which we would nowadays call, "on the peripheries." She was not of Jewish descent and therefore as we have read in the Gospel today it was believed that she "cannot benefit from the salvation of the People of God." Thanks to the insistence of this woman, we learn something new: Jesus redefines who the People of God are. They are no longer those who are of Jewish descent, but all those who like this woman, believe in Christ.

We might or might not be at the centre of the church, we might or might not consider ourselves as those who deserve to gain the benefits of our religion by right, as the disciples were expecting. Today there might be many on the peripheries for various reasons. Pope Francis speaks of two types of peripheries: the geographic peripheries, that is those who are not in the centre of our social and civic life, such as the refugees, those living in poor and dangerous neighbourhoods, the elderly and the existential peripheries, that is those who are passing through moments of doubt in their spiritual life, whose who are afflicted by severe anxiety and depression for fear of what tomorrow might bring, those burdened by sin. The Canaanite woman, herself a woman of the peripheries embodies all these people who are found on the peripheries. Salvation has come for these people as well, for all that is needed is to call out to God in faith.

The mission of the Church: hospitable to all and overcome racism

Third, the Canaanite woman who was saved because of her great faith in Jesus is also an opportunity, as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us when he shared some reflections on this gospel in 2008, to "reflect on the universality of the mission of the Church, which is made up of people of every race and culture." Just as Jesus brought salvation - not only physical healing but restored wholeness to the Canaanite woman irrespective of her ethnic group, "the ecclesial community, (that is, you and I) is called to be a hospitable home for all, a sign and instrument of communion for the entire human family."

The Pope continues, "How important it is, especially in our time, that every Christian community increasingly deepens its awareness of this in order also to help civil society overcome every possible temptation to give into racism, intolerance and exclusion and to make decisions that respect the dignity of every human being! One of humanity's great achievements is in fact its triumph over racism. However, unfortunately disturbing new forms of racism are being manifested in various Countries. They are often related to social and economic problems which can, however, never justify contempt and racial discrimination. Let us pray that respect for every person everywhere will increase, together with a responsible awareness that only in the reciprocal acceptance of one and all is it possible to build a world distinguished by authentic justice and true peace."

The Canaanite woman had a faith so strong as to make Jesus change his mind, as it were, and grant her requests. But she is also a woman strong enough to teach us to persevere in prayer, to teach us that God's salvation embraces even those on the geographic and existential peripheries and that the mission of the Church is to welcome everyone whoever he or she may be.