TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
20 AUGUST 2017
A careful
reading of the Sacred Scriptures reveals God’s habit of calling certain people
over others. God chose Abel instead of
Cain, and Abraham instead of Lot. God
chose David instead of Saul. God chose
the Israelites instead of the Egyptians.
The history of those choices is seen in the mosaics in the center
aisle. God made the first covenant with
Adam, promising our first parents that he would never abandon them, even though
they had abandoned him. God promised
Noah that he would never again flood the earth, and Abraham that his descendants
would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the shores of the
earth. God promised Moses that he would
remain faithful to his people, no matter what.
To David he promised that the messiah would come from his house, and he
entered into the New Covenant with us through his Son, the Lamb of God pictured
on the mosaic on the Altar.
God did not
choose any of these people because they deserved it or earned it. In fact, all who have been chosen by God have
sinned and not kept the covenant. That
is why Matthew begins his Gospel with Jesus calling the chosen people to
repent. Jesus calls them to conversion,
so that they can respond better to God’s choice and be part of the Kingdom of
Heaven.
That is
also why Jesus responds to this Canaanite woman in such a shocking and rude
way. After arguing with the Pharisees
about what is clean and unclean, Jesus travels to an unclean territory – Tyre
and Sidon. God’s chosen people
considered these pagan residents as dogs because of their cruel treatment. When this pagan woman approaches him and begs
him to help her daughter, she addresses him with the words any good Jew would
have understood, calling him Lord, Son of David. Not only does he ignore her, but he insists
that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When she persists, he says that it is not
right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs. With her sense of humor intact, she points
out that even dogs get scraps. Finally,
Jesus responds with compassion and heals her daughter.
In healing
this woman’s daughter, Jesus follows the insights of the prophet, Isaiah. Isaiah had spoken to his people in Babylon
centuries earlier. In their captivity,
members of God’s chosen people had interacted with their pagan neighbors, and
some of those neighbors accepted their faith and joined them. Isaiah points out that God did not choose
people so they could be better than anyone else. Instead, God chose people to be instruments
of his mercy, to share God’s love with people different from them. That is what Jesus does in the Gospel. He recognizes the woman’s deep faith. He admires her perseverance and her humility
to admit that she did not deserve to be chosen, any more than God’s chosen
people had deserved to be chosen.
We hear
this message at time of great division in our country. Instead of promoting hate, racism, and
division, Jesus provides a very different message. Instead of isolating ourselves from those who
are different from us, he pushes us to look at those of different races or
ethnic backgrounds as people created in the image of God. Instead of acting out of fear, he challenges
us to get to know them. Instead of
yelling and screaming at each other, he wants us to enter into an honest
dialogue. That is what Saint Paul did. As a Pharisee, he regarded all non-Jews as
dogs. But after he had encountered Jesus
Christ and was rejected by his own people, he got to know the Gentiles on a
personal level. Instead of condemning
them, he proclaimed the Gospel to them and welcomed them as God’s chosen people
in the New Covenant. God has chosen us,
not because we have earned his choice or deserved it. He has chosen us to move beyond our comfort
zone, to get to know those different from ourselves, and to enter into a
personal dialogue inviting conversion and the Kingdom of heaven.
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