Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 118
Reading 1
Thus
says the LORD:
Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed.
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;
their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,
for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.
Responsorial Psalm
R.
(4) O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
Reading 2
Brothers
and sisters:
I am speaking to you Gentiles.
Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles,
I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous
and thus save some of them.
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
Just as you once disobeyed God
but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
so they have now disobeyed in order that,
by virtue of the mercy shown to you,
they too may now receive mercy.
For God delivered all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy upon all.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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.
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
Revelation of the truth can sometimes be a slow process, taking time and patience. It is not always easy to discover or understand. Wisdom takes knowledge, understanding, and experience. None of these can be gathered quickly. It is through wisdom that the truth about anything and all things is revealed. As Christians, we learn that the ultimate truth is God. He is the answer to all things. It is through Jesus Christ that we get to know Him. It is through the Holy Spirit that we get to love him: a three-fold process and a three-fold solution. Wisdom, being one of the virtues, is something that we are required to pursue to establish a relationship with God and to live justly in the world today. In the Scripture Readings today, there appears to be a shift in messaging from the First Reading to the proclamation of the Gospel. The word of God through the prophet Isaiah emphasizes God’s promise of salvation for all peoples, and not just the Jewish People:
“for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.”
There is no exclusivity for the Jewish People. It is all who respond to God, follow the commandments, and life according to His will:
for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.
We have been invited and God just waits for us to respond and enter into relationship with Him.
From Isaiah, we are led to the Apostle Paul and his Letter to the Romans. Here we find that Paul emphasizes that salvation is for the gentiles as well as the Jews: all peoples covering this Earth and all of God’s creation. He observes that we should be thankful at what was beings offered to us, and that it was through the process of our disobedience and God’s eternal mercy that we are given an opportunity for forgiveness and redemption. The forgiveness is for everyone and the opportunity is constant.
Coming to the Gospel Reading, there sounds at first to be a change in tone regarding salvation. Twice, a Canaanite woman asked Jesus for help regarding her daughter and Jesus refused, emphasizing He had only come for the salvation of the Jews. He then insulted her, comparing giving her the Word of God was like throwing food to the dogs. The Canaanite woman responded with her own justification:
"Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters."
With that, her daughter was healed.
Jesus was not holding back anything from anyone. He was waiting for a specific answer that she gave: there is no prerequisite to receive what is being offered for free. Christ died once so that we may achieve eternal life. God is not selective when it comes to salvation. Jesus does not withhold his Divine Mercy and His healing grace. The Apostle Paul actually points this out: it is because we rejected God previously (original sin) that we became shareholders in Jesus Christ. The spiritual journey that the pursuit of wisdom offers us is a fulfilling journey with many blessings and gifts offered along the way. It enables us to have a deeper relationship with God through Jesus Christ that we would not have had otherwise. We become benefactors now, in this life, and in the next.
Not only was Jesus waiting for the revelation from the Canaanite woman but was using her for the benefit of all those who could hear and for all of us. There is always an intent behind Jesus’ actions and His words. Not only are these used for the person He is interacting with, but for all those who are witnesses and readers of what occurred. The woman was a gentile (non-jew). Yet, she possessed a wisdom that was lacking in many of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes of the time. Uneducated in Jewish tradition and Sacred Scripture, she was able to recognize who Jesus was and pleaded for His help. Initially rebuked, she possessed the knowledge and understanding to answer His rebuke, the central argument that many of the Jews believed: there would come a Messiah for the Jewish People, returning them to greatness and reestablishing their relationship with God. The Canaanite woman possessed the whole truth and acted upon it. We too have that opportunity, but we must constantly pursue wisdom to achieve these things. Ignorance does not become an excuse, especially when we know how to make the journey.
Time doesn’t matter. It is better to enjoy the journey and be transformed by it than to focus on the final destination, for we already know what that destination is. The thing that we do not know is how the journey will shape us along the way. That ends up being the exciting part and the part that matters the most.
Deacon Tom
No comments:
Post a Comment