Gospel Reflection For Sunday 20th August 2023

20th Sunday Ordinary Time – by Fr Brian Maher OMI

Gospel Reflection for Sunday August 20th 2023 | 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Anyone who holds on to the idea that Jesus was a meek and mild, pale faced, soft spoken man who would never hurt a fly will be disappointed with today’s Gospel. Matthew makes no apologies for presenting a person of conviction, confident in himself and very sure of his message, even if that does impinge on the feelings of others – in today’s case a Canaanite woman with a sick child. The ‘sugar-coated’ Jesus who looks off into the middle distance with an otherworldly gaze, is the construct of Renaissance artists, well meaning, pious teachers, and some Hollywood directors. It owes little or nothing to the actual Gospel stories of Jesus.  I, for one, am much happier following the Jesus of the Gospels than the Jesus who adorns the walls of art galleries all over the world.

All human beings have rough edges and imperfections. As we grow and mature they get smoothed by our interaction with others, and hopefully by our own desire to be better persons. But no matter what we do our weaknesses are there; they are part of who we are. Indeed, very frequently these little quirks and oddities are what we love in others.

Nor must we mistake them for ‘sins’. The holy nuns who taught me in my first years at school made me learn by heart that for something to be sinful, there must be ‘grave matter, full knowledge and full consent.’ At the time I can’t say I understood a word of that definition, but now it makes a lot of sense to me, and indeed gives me a lot of comfort. We have to work fairly hard to achieve all three of these things! Any psychologist or therapist will tell us that having ‘full knowledge’ of our motivations, impulses, past experiences, etc. takes a lot of dedicated work to achieve.

The Letter to the Hebrews tells us:  ^“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” (Hebrews 4:15). Not only is it not wrong, but it is part of our faith that we see in the person of Jesus a person just like us in all things – except sin. Unless we can acknowledge in Jesus ordinary human weakness, temptation and some ‘rough edges’ we cannot relate to him in any real way, and that would be a great pity. He entered into our history and he became one of us so we could relate to him as one of us. The great mystic of the 16^th century, Teresa of Avila, put it so well when she said,  “It is important that while we are living and are human, we have human support. Christ is a very good friend because we behold him as man and see him with weaknesses and trials, and he is company for us.”

I say all of this because without this background we can never understand today’s Gospel. We can skirt around it and maybe take some nice moral messages from it, but we will never understand it, or truly meet the Jesus who encountered that Canaanite woman on the road. And what a pity that would be because the Jesus we meet today is a person who will surprise us, make us smile or laugh, and send us away wanting to meet him again and learn more about him.

The setting of this story is a very real and personal one. The Canaanite woman is a lovely, warm and real person. But more than that, she is a mother; the mother of a sick child. What mother would not do everything possible, and more, to ease the pain of their child? The woman of today’s Gospel is such a mother – looking after a constantly sick and tormented daughter, wanting to do everything for her but unable to do anything to take away her pain.

As a Canaanite she was a pagan and ancient enemy of Israel. Remember it was the Canaanites who inhabited the ‘Promised Land’ before the People of Israel battled their way to victory over them. As a child learning about Moses and his journey through the desert to the Promised Land Jesus would have learned that Canaanites were their enemies, to be avoided and never trusted.

In their turn Canaanites saw the People of Israel as the people who took possession of their land and banished them to one tiny section of Israel. For the Canaanite woman Jesus represented the people who oppressed them. If she had a choice she would not go anywhere near Jesus or his band of followers. Why would she want to expose herself to ridicule, embarrassment and probably rejection by an enemy?

Because she is a mother, that’s why! She will risk ridicule, insult, rejection, humiliation, anything thrown at her, if there is any possibility of restoring health to her daughter. So, when she hears that Jesus, the healer, is nearby she goes out and follows him, pleading over and over for her daughter.

And things go exactly as she might have expected. She is ignored, laughed at, pushed aside by the crowd. The healer is giving his time to his people. He is talking, listening, teaching them about the coming Kingdom of God.

He has no time for her and keeps moving forward.

But she is a mother, and mothers don’t give up.

Interestingly, it is not Jesus who reaches out to her. Jesus clearly does not ‘take pity on her’ and moves on. It is his disciples, his bodyguard, his crowd control people who finally have to respond to what is rapidly becoming an embarrassing situation for all of them. Their motive is not compassion for her, or even an awareness that she is a sad and desperate mother.

She is, for them, an annoyance, a background noise they could do without. She is simply an unwelcome distraction. They go to Jesus and tell him ‘to send her away’.

At this point we almost expect Jesus to rebuke his disciples and give the woman what she wants. Surprisingly, Jesus is not keen to help her. He doesn’t say, “OK, bring her to me.” No, he reminds them that his mission is to his people, to the House of Israel, and not to despised Canaanites. He seems quite happy to do as his disciples ask and ‘send her away’.

It is impossible to avoid the fact that it is prejudice which governs their response to the woman – and it seems to be a prejudice shared by Jesus himself. For many people that is shocking, and they search around to find some other, more palatable, explanation for Jesus’ interaction with the woman.

But why should it surprise or shock us? Jesus was a man of his times and culture. He was brought up, learning of the traitorous Canaanites. He is human like we are, sharing the weaknesses and temptations that all of us face. Prejudice is not a good or virtuous thing, but it is not sinful unless we let it become cruelty or hatred or spill over into violence.

The woman, this strong, desperate mother, uses the chatting between Jesus and his disciples to get close to him. For the first time she is not an anonymous, Canaanite voice in the distance. Now she is a woman and a mother, kneeling at his feet, pleading for help. It must have been humiliating for her to kneel before Jesus, knowing how he despised her people.

And now, another surprise. We might expect immediate compassion but instead Jesus’ words are dismissive and hurtful. Referring to her and her people as ‘house-dogs’ is not what one expects of Jesus!

But she ignores the insult. It is no more than she expected and certainly it is not going to stop her pleading for her child. Her reply is quick, witty and clever. She flatters Jesus, then shows that she doesn’t resent him calling her people ‘house-dogs’ by repeating the term herself.

What is happening in this short dialogue between Jesus and the woman is important. Enemies are often our enemies so long as we can dehumanise them. They are ‘dogs’ or ‘pigs, or ‘collateral damage’ or whatever… But when my ‘enemy’ takes on a human face and speaks to me in a semi-teasing, humorous way things change. The woman is more than just a ‘Canaanite’ and Jesus is more than just an enemy. She is the mother of a terribly sick child and Jesus is proclaiming a Kingdom of God which is for all people. It is so appropriate that Jesus cures the little girl. He rises above prejudice and sectarianism, becoming a living example of the Kingdom he comes to show us. People, particularly Jewish people, reading this story for the first time would not have underestimated the openness and trust Jesus needed to find within himself to accept this woman as an equal in the Kingdom of God.

“Woman, you have great faith…” Jesus tells the her, maybe with a hint of humour and surprise in his voice and an appreciative smile on his face. And he’s surely right. She did have astounding faith to do what she did, but more than that, she had courage, strength and amazing resilience.

I like to imagine her replying in her warm, intelligent way, “No, Lord, I don’t have great faith. I’m just a mother!”

I also like to imagine them becoming friends after this encounter. That may be too much to ask for, but there is no doubt that this beautiful meeting of Jew and Canaanite leads to compassion, healing and mutual respect.

This is the Jesus we follow. Not a plaster, dirt free man in freshly washed clothes, but a real human person, with the rough edges that make all of us human. Reading this Gospel I am so glad I try to follow Jesus down those trails and tracks on Israel, watching and listening to all he does and says.

Many thanks,

Brian 

If you have any comments, questions or thoughts on this scripture reflection, please feel welcome to email me at b.maher@oblates.ie

The Canaanite woman debates with Jesus and saves her daughter