Great is Your Faith (Sunday, Week 20, Year A)

The gospel opens with a statement that Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon (a Gentile territory, a pagan area). This movement of Jesus to a pagan territory will help us understand the message of this gospel passage. Now, at the time of this event, the Jews had wrongly believed for centuries that they exclusively belong to God; that they are the only chosen people of God; that it is for them that the Messiah would come; and that other nations or peoples (that is, the Gentiles) are not in the salvation plan of God. On account of this wrong belief, the Jews despised and hated the Gentiles (the non-Jews); and treated them as nobodies. This Sunday’s gospel passage at first may appear to present Jesus as supporting and tolerating such Jewish belief that salvation was only for them; but in the long run, we see a different thing altogether. In his encounter with the Canaanite woman, there was something deeper that Jesus wanted to communicate to the Jews and even to the woman.

There are three characters in the gospel reading: the Canaanite woman (a Gentile), Jesus (a Jew) and the disciples (Jews). The Canaanite woman (a “Gentile” and a “woman”) cried to Jesus (a “Jew”, a “Rabbi”) to have mercy on her and help her for her daughter was severely possessed by a demon. It is unthinkable that a Gentile should talk to a Jew; very unthinkable that a woman should talk to a Jewish rabbi, not to talk of asking for a favor or for help. I am sure this Canaanite woman was aware of the impressions and belief that the Jews had about Gentiles and women. I am sure she was aware that for the Jews, Gentiles are nobodies and women were mere property. So, to test this woman’s faith, Jesus didn’t utter a word at first when she cried to Him; He didn’t mind her. In his apparent refusal to respond to the woman’s request, Jesus was testing her faith and also training her in faith to know whether she really believed in Him well enough and in herself against people’s opinion of her (as a Gentile and woman). 

To worsen matters, the disciples being Jews begged him to send her away. Jesus reaffirmed his stance by saying that He was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. Did they woman allow these seemingly discouraging statements and gestures to discourage her from pressing further? No! Jesus threw another bombshell, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs”; in other words, Jesus called her a dog maybe because of her background (as a Gentile). By this final statement, the woman should have walked away in disappointment, anger and pains. But she did not. She pressed further. Now, she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the children eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table”. By her final statement, the woman proved that she was a person of great faith: that she had great faith in Him (Jesus) and in herself. And on account of her dogged and persistent faith, her request was granted.

This woman didn’t allow her background (as a Gentile and woman) put “her back on the ground”. She did not allow popular opinion about her to stunt her faith in God and in herself. Sometimes, when we don’t receive any answer to our prayers, when it appears as if God is silent, it could be that our faith is being tested; it could be that we are being trained in the faith. Despite the discriminatory opinions the Jews had about Gentiles, the woman proved very strongly and consistently that she is also a chosen and precious child of God. Though she was a Gentile, but contrary to the belief of the Jews, she believed that God’s blessings are meant for all, accessible to all who approach Him in faith; she believed that God’s house is a house of prayer for everyone whether a Jew or a Gentile, black or white, male or female, and so on. And this is what prophet Isaiah is trying to communicate in the first reading that even those regarded as foreigners (that is, Gentiles), who join themselves to the Lord, shall be brought to the Holy Mountain (the house of the Lord) and God’s house shall be called “a house of prayer for all peoples”. In the second reading, St Paul added that whether Jews or Gentile, all of us who were once disobedient to God, have now received mercy, no exclusion.

There are many of us who feel shut out of God’s presence, of national life, of family life, of social life and so on. Many of us now have a very defeating and wrong belief about themselves that they don’t belong, maybe because of their past lives, or certain weaknesses or shortcomings which they have or because of where they come from (their financial, social or physical background). Don’t let your background neutralize the power of your faith: you too belong to God; you are also precious to Him. Therefore, don’t feel intimidated to ask; don’t be afraid to participate, to be part of, to get involved in the church, in your family, in your country, and in any place you find yourself. Show that “GREAT IS YOUR FAITH”: your faith in God and your faith in yourself.