Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast, where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, O Lord.
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 Jesus Christ.
This is one of those gospels that when we hear it, I think we get taken aback a little bit.
Jesus seems to be quick to dismiss, and he almost seems to be a bit cruel.
And it goes against, I think, what most of us have as an image of his presence in our lives and the love that he shares.
But here's what's actually going on.
He is allowing this woman's faith to be a lesson for all those who are gathered in this place at this time.
And the answer and response he initially gives is what everyone in that room were hoping he would do because they found it easy to dismiss her as a foreigner, as an outsider, as someone who was not part of God's chosen people.
And therefore they felt that they could dismiss her. They didn't need to worry about her. They didn't need to have any compassion or mercy toward her.
They definitely didn't need to love her.
Yet her faith seems very much stronger than theirs.
And by bringing out her faith before them, he teaches them.
He teaches us how our faith should be lived out.
And our initial feelings about Jesus aren't wrong.
There is not one person, there is not one category of person. There is not one race or one ethnicity, one group that in the eyes of Jesus can be dismissed.
And in fact, all are loved by him.
And the lesson that's meant for us is that we recognize that profound truth as well, that there is not one group of people, one category, one race, one ethnicity that we can simply ignore.
But the reality of Christ's love is that it is universal, and he expects that same thing out of each one of us.
Now, the secondary part of that truth is that we need to be profoundly grateful for that reality.
Because most of the time we think we're on the inside.
But most of the time, at least for me, I'm on the outside.
I'm the one that hasn't merited anything, hasn't truly deserved the love that's been given me. Yet I receive it anyway, and so do you.
We are all wanted and cherished by Christ's love, and we always need to remember that.
