Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
But as for you, your bodies shall fall here in the desert, here where your children must wander for forty years, suffering for your faithlessness, till the last of you lies dead in the desert. Forty days you spent in scouting the land; forty years shall you suffer for your crimes: one year for each day. Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me. Numbers 14: 32-34
He said in reply, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters." Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed from that hour. Matthew 15:26-28
Piety
“Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!”
Study
We are a grumbling people. When things get tough or don’t go our way, we become a “woe-is-me” Christian. We’ve all done it even if we don’t like to admit it. Today, we learn that grumbling has consequences.
Moses sends his princes into the Promised Land but they grumble about the size and strength of the people who live there. Despite the gifts promised to these people, they don’t accept the gift because they think the price that they will have to pay is too high. Their solution is to fight the foreigners. The writers of the Book of Numbers do not tell us that any other course of action was considered. Did they consider trying to live side-by-side with the inhabitants and share the resources?
Even though the explorers sent out by Moses found that the land flowed with milk, honey and fruit, they felt that they had to possess the land entirely for themselves – not sharing it with the native inhabitants. But they feared the strength of the people already living there. So rather than find common ground, they faced the “tyranny of the OR.” The land has to belong to Moses and his people OR the natives. It could not belong to both.
In our Gospel reading, we encounter a Canaanite woman who has more faith in Jesus’ ability to cure her daughter than the Jews surrounding him. Her faith also exceeds that shown by the Jews wandering the desert with Moses. She could have become the “grumbling Canaanite woman” but instead we encounter her as the “faithful Canaanite woman.”
Jesus initially came to save the Jews. However, as word spread, people from all nations turned to him. Jesus was even caught grumbling today about being pestered by the Canaanite woman. While initially reluctant to cure the daughter of the Canaanite woman, her faith helped to overcome Jesus’ objections to answering her prayers. Despite the insults thrown to her comparing her to dogs, she persists. Her simple prayer, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!” was not enough to move Jesus to action. However, her persistent prayer of “Lord, help me” convinced Jesus to respond to her.
Jesus conquered the tyranny of the “or” by embracing the love of the “and.” He decided not to choose between loving the Jews "or" the Gentiles. He chose to love the Jews AND the Gentiles and the Romans and the lepers and the Canaanites and other strangers. We witness countless examples of Jesus sharing his love with all people.
Action
Jesus could not withhold his love from people who lived their faith no matter what their background. In the Hebrew Bible, we see how the Lord withheld his love from people who grumbled and did not live up to their faith or love up to their faith. However, Jesus could not keep his love-in-action buried like a treasure withheld from others.
What will stop our grumbling? We know that Jesus says we must take up our cross and follow him. What part of cross do we not understand? The cross was the instrument of torture and death in his time. Jesus does not ask us to pick a pillow or a daisy. The challenge is to overcome the temptation to grumble and respond in faith and love to the hardships surrounding us.
What will move us to action?
