“Today’s Gospel certainly has a different flare to it because here is this Canaanite woman who comes and asks Jesus for the cure of her daughter and Jesus puts her off and before that even the disciples push her off and it’s kind of typical of the time there. The Jews and the Canaanites were not very good friends. They were enemies for centuries and so the idea of a Jew doing a favor for a Canaanite or that a Canaanite would even ask a Jew for that particular favor was kind of unthinkable, but the Canaanite woman loves her daughter so much that she comes to Jesus and I think Jesus in order to show the disciples how great was her faith that he pushes her off at first. It’s almost out of character for Christ. I don’t think it was a question of racism, but rather a question of Jesus trying to test that faith but also to manifest her faith to the disciples because Jesus is saying here, ‘Yes salvation is for all people.’
For many of the Jewish people they felt that the Messiah was just for them, but Isaiah in the first reading today reminds them that the Messiah is going to be for all people and that the temple in Jerusalem which really ends up being the temple that is Christ Jesus, Jesus is the new Jerusalem, that that is a house of prayer for all peoples and so he manifests the fact that he can cure, free that woman’s daughter because of her great faith.
It’s interesting that Jesus really admired the faith of the Gentiles. There was also the centurion who came to him and asked for the cure of his son and Jesus said, ‘I haven’t seen this much faith in all of Israel and it’s again that affirmation that the call to holiness, the call to salvation is a universal call. It’s not just for the few, but it’s for all people to come to knowledge and love in Christ Jesus and it’s a reminder that yes, we as the body of Christ today must be a house or prayer for all people as well to embrace all to welcome all that no one feels excluded but that through people of good faith, of sincere trust are all welcome and that that’s an important challenge for us is to show that welcoming spirit of Christ Jesus.
There’s another little message in this scripture I believe and that is that the Canaanite woman just didn’t ask, she was very aggressive in her action. She did not give up. It wasn’t just for her staying at home and saying a prayer, but rather she was very action oriented in her life and in her request and obviously it’s that reminder of perseverance in prayer, but I think it’s also the reminder that prayer and action have to go together. Sometimes I find that people have a lot of action, but it’s not really bolstered or really under girt with prayer. Other people have an extreme amount of prayer, but maybe not the action that they need and really the key is putting prayer and action together. St. Augustine said it so very well and so very simply when he said, ‘Act as though everything depends on you, but pray as though everything depends upon God.’ That’s a very good word of advice in terms of our spiritual life, in terms of our own human endeavors. Yes, we need to use all of our own energy, our own activity, but we also rely upon God’s grace, upon God’s care, upon God’s love and that combination: pray as if everything depends upon God, but act as though everything depends upon you.”