By Rev. Paul Berghout
Piety
The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, ministering to him, loving the name of the LORD, and becoming his servants—all who keep the Sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Isaiah 56:6-7
But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, "Lord, help me." 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 the woman's daughter was healed from that hour. Matthew 15:25-28
Study
Everything was wrong with that woman in Canaanite-Jewish relations: Wrong gender, wrong religion, wrong nationality. She was probably a single mom with a special needs child, and she desperately needed Jesus’ help.
Jesus’ reaction to this desperate woman’s request is quite interesting.
The truth is, he didn’t respond at all. His disciples certainly did not want anything to do with the woman, i.e. “Please Don't Speak to Me While I'm Not Listening.” She didn't qualify for help because Jesus had been sent to minister “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
To make matters seemingly worse, Jesus repeated a saying of his day that the pagans were nothing but dogs, although he used the word “puppies” to soften it.
Yet, in verse 28, Jesus tells her, “you have Great faith.” In Greek “Mega-Faith.”
Action
These three lessons are contained in these scriptures:
First, the woman spoke up for her convictions because she believed that Jesus Christ could heal her daughter. Sometimes, the voices telling you that you are “wrong” come from within. The lesson is for your Healing: Don't Take "No" For An Answer.
Don’t let the “old voices” come back to haunt you. They try to tell you that “you’re not good enough, smart enough, and what makes you think you have anything of importance to say?”
If we just trust that God has our best interests in hand, we can allow new voices to guide us forward.
Her love for her daughter overcame the fear of Jewish-Canaanite problems. She had within her the courage and boldness which nourished and strengthened her faith. St. Teresa Avila said, “To have courage for whatever comes in life — everything lies in that.”
A second lesson: "Don’t take things personally." We are often bit-players in other people’s dramas. To test her, Jesus called her a puppy, the woman was not put off in the least. She answers, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”
In most cases, people who want to follow Jesus need to be humbled first instead of resenting the Statement of Jesus. In effect, the woman was able to use this slogan as a tool after she was called a puppy: “Take what you like and leave the rest." Or, in the country, they say, “Eat the hay and spit out the sticks.”
Charity has no rigid requirements; it does not expect, and even less pretend, that others should adapt themselves to it, but it is always ready to accommodate itself to the neighbor.
God adapted Himself to us when He became a man; yet, we do not know how to come down from the little pedestal of our personality to adapt ourselves to the mentalities, preferences, and needs of our brethren.
A third lesson is toughness for the tender-hearted. It takes a strong person of faith to stand up to his or her peers, and defend an innocent immigrant without legal papers threatened with deportation, or to say/believe that those with same sex attraction are called to chastity and Christian perfection.
Pope Francis quotes Saint John of the Cross about married couples who are tried and true: “They ‘are outwardly no longer afire with powerful emotions and impulses, but now taste the sweetness of the wine of love, well-aged and stored deep within their hearts’. Such couples have successfully overcome crises and hardships without fleeing from challenges or concealing problems.”
The daughter of the Canaanite woman was immediately “healed from that very hour.”
Jesus does not need to go near her daughter to be healed. This is the SWEETEST REWARD for her faith.
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