Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

08-20-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Joseph Zwosta

There are certain passages in the Gospels in which Christ’s interactions do not unfold the way that many of us would expect. Today’s Gospel certainly qualifies. A sincere Canaanite woman informs the Lord that her daughter is possessed by a demon. By this point in St. Matthew’s Gospel, we’ve heard about Christ performing numerous exorcisms. The afflicted mother even employs words that others have used with success: “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!” (Mt 15:22) In this case, however, He does not respond to her at all. When she later asks a second time for His help, accompanied by an act of homage, He seems to treat her even more harshly. He says: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” (Mt 15:26) How can we understand Christ’s unusual behavior?

To begin to answer, we must consider who the Canaanites were. They were descendants of Ham, one of the sons of Noah. As their name implies, they lived in the land of Canaan, the territory that the Lord promised to Abraham and his descendants. When the people of Israel invaded the promised land under the leadership of Joshua, they drove out some of the Canaanites, but not all. They continued to live in the region called Tyre and Sidon, also known as Phoenicia. Thus, in St. Mark’s version of this encounter, the woman is described as Syrophoenician. However one describes her, this was clearly a Gentile, rather than a Jewish woman.

At the time of our Blessed Lord’s public ministry, Jews and Canaanites had great antipathy toward one another and they tried to avoid one another as much as possible. Thus, one possible explanation for Christ’s initial reaction to the woman’s request was that he was following the cultural norm of the Jewish people. This would explain both His initial silence and His use of the word “dogs” during their second encounter. Jews in ancient Israel would have used this word routinely to describe Gentiles, since they worshipped idols. The Lord also invoked a common Jewish religious assumption in saying: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Mt 15:24) The people of Israel presumed that when the Messiah would arrive, His ministry would be confined to them. Jesus, of course, would transcend these limitations. Before doing so, however, He wished to acknowledge the special status of the Jewish people, the recipient of God’s promises for thousands of years.

Another common interpretation of Christ’s actions and words in today’s Gospel is that He wished to demonstrate the importance of perseverance in prayer. The Canaanite woman desperately wished for her daughter to be free from demonic possession. She had faith that Jesus was Lord and the Son of David, the Messiah. She expressed that faith and asked for His assistance. When He did not help her, she tried to get the disciples to assist her. When that failed, she approached Christ a second time with her request. When He used the word “dogs” in reference to her people, she did not become insulted. Rather she said: “even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” (Mt 15:27) It was this humble reply that led Christ to grant her request and heal her daughter. It implicitly acknowledged the special status of the Jewish people, the deficient status of her own people, and Christ’s tremendous power. As St. Peter Chrysologus remarks about the Canaanite woman: “Deservedly is she adopted as a daughter, and raised to the table, who in her humility placed herself beneath the table.” (Sermon 100)

Sometimes it can seem, as it must have seemed at first to the Canaanite woman, that the Lord is ignoring our prayers, especially when we are praying for a special intention. Maybe we have been praying for a sick family member who just seems to be getting worse. Maybe we have been praying for a job opportunity that never seems to come. Maybe we have been praying for peace in the world and violence seems to grow worse and worse by the day. There can be a great temptation to give up praying when it seems like we are not getting what we want. Incidents like that of today’s Gospel teach us that sometimes the Lord delays answering our prayers to bring about a greater good. The Canaanite woman was given the opportunity to deepen her prayer and to express her faith in Christ in a more profound way. When it seems that the Lord is not answering our prayers, we must also reaffirm our trust in God’s providence and continue to lift up our minds and hearts to Him.

Today’s Gospel ultimately shows us how much the Lord wants to bless Jews and Gentiles alike. The prophets of the Old Testament foresaw the universality of the new People of God, the Church. In our First Reading, the Lord says to Isaiah: “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.” (Is 56:6–7) This prophecy was fulfilled in the life of the Canaanite woman. It is fulfilled today in the lives of all members of the Church, from every race, nation, and tongue.