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Gospel: Matthew 15: 21-28
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
“Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.
Jesus’ disciples came and asked him,
“Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”
He said in reply,
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
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.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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When it comes to begging for food, dogs have no shame. Imagine those soft puppy eyes staring at your food, timed with the perfectly pitched whimper. They’ll whine, weep, woof, and paw at your leg until they get what they want.
It seems they also have a pecking order. Usually, dogs will start with any guest at the table, hoping to score a bonus scrap. If that doesn’t work, then they’ll whine and move on to their usual targets.
But if they push their luck too far and get sent away, then they’ll bark from the next room or from inside their crate, letting everyone know just how unhappy they are. We might translate their faint cries into something like, “How could you?”
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In today’s Gospel, a desperate mother humbles herself to the point of acting like a puppy, whimpering before Jesus, begging him to heal her daughter who’s possessed by a demon. She has experienced what some call the worst form of pain, watching her child suffer.
Any parent can empathize. Imagine your child’s stomach grumbling with hunger, yet you lack the resources to feed them.
Or the sense of helplessness you feel when your child is ill, if they wail in pain after breaking a bone, the anxiety they feel when bullied on social media, or the sadness of a broken heart.
Seeing her daughter tormented by a demon has nearly driven this poor mother mad. While we do not know what other remedies she has tried, she is clearly at her wit’s end. So she turns to God for help.
“Have pity on me, Son of David!” she cries out.
I’m sure we’d expect the shriek of her voice to pierce Christ’s compassionate heart. But seeing her face dampened with tears doesn’t seem to move him at all. In a stunning, almost unimaginable, twist, Jesus gives her the cold shoulder!
How could he?
The Lord moved mountains for other people. When a leper approached Jesus – his skin covered in pus, boils, and rags – the Lord was stirred in his very “innards” with compassion for the man, so he immediately healed him.
Yet this woman cries out in faith for help and she’s dismissed…
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Making matters worse, the disciples adopt Christ’s cold shoulder approach, saying to him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” Her high pitched plea sounding like a tiny gnat whizzing in their ears.
Shrugging it off, this mother persists, “Lord, help me!”
But things get progressively worse as Jesus calls her a “dog,” which – if we’re being generous – we might translate as, “puppy.”
“It’s not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs,” he says. Ouch.
But here’s the real kicker.
Knowingly or not, this woman uses Christ’s own teachings against him. After being ignored, insulted, and publicly humiliated, she turns the other cheek, and persists in her request. “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”
Finally, her faith, her utter humility, and her advocacy for her daughter seem to shake Jesus from his cold slumber. “O woman, great is your faith!” he says. “Let it be done for you as you wish.”
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This harrowing scene leaves us with several questions.
Why did Jesus seem to be so mean to her? And, if she were able to speak to us today, then what might she have learned from this encounter?
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On the surface, Jesus was dismissive of her because she was a Canaanite, not a Jew.
But on a deeper level, it seems that he was motivating her to demonstrate the depths of her faith for the sake of the disciples. While they were still growing in their understanding of him, she knew exactly who he was, calling him, “Son of David,” “Master,” and “Lord.”
Her faith was not contingent upon circumstance. In spite of being denied multiple times, she persevered in calling him, “Lord.”
Meanwhile, Peter sank into the stormy waters of the Sea of Galilee just last week, and was rebuked by Jesus for being of “little faith.”
It’s a hard pill to swallow, but sometimes we may find ourselves in this mother’s position. Jesus may test our faith, not because it is shallow; rather the opposite, because it is deep.
That’s often when others take notice. When our world is shaken, when we face impossible odds, yet we are not deterred or overcome, we become a “light to the nations,” revealing to others the power of faith.
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When it comes to begging, dogs have no shame.
But their woofs and whimpers are a learned behavior, each scrap that falls from the table affirming that what they are doing is working.
Similarly, the Canaanite mother in today’s Gospel reminds us that puppy eyes rooted in humility, persistence, and sincere faith eventually stir the Lord to act.
“O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
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Image credits: (1) New York Times (2) Benedictine College Media and Culture (3) The Dogvine