20th Sunday of the Year; 16th August 2020

 May we, in this Sunday’s Eucharistic celebration, obtain the grace to be open to God’s attitude of universal salvation for all as well as favours of ardent faith and perseverance in prayer.

Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 56, l.6-7; Romans 11, l3-l5.29-32; Matt l5,2l-28; 20th Sunday of the Year; 16th August 2020)

 

Today's Gospel presents a beautiful teaching on praying persistently, with full faith. The protagonist is a person who does not belong to the chosen people, but to a pagan race. This Gospel is prepared by the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah, which predicts that the Lord will be full of kindness to foreigners who adhere to his word in order to serve him. The second reading is the conclusion of the Letter to the Romans and deals with the theme of the conversion of the Jews.

We notice the evangelical scene, full of life and spontaneity. Matthew described it with an impressive progression. Jesus sometimes went out of the Israelite territory into pagan regions. This time, he headed to some parts of Tyre and Sidon, north of the Holy Land. And behold, a Canaanite woman, who comes from the region, begins to cry out: Have pity on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is erudely tormented by a demon. It is a cry dictated by an urgent need and supported by maternal love. The daughter of this woman is crudely tormented; that is why the mother turns to Jesus. She must have heard of him, his kindness to the sick and miraculous interventions. She addresses him with a request and intense faith. But this time Jesus exhibits a surprising attitude; he ignores this intense prayer and does not say a word to the woman. He shows that he does not want to intervene, and does not want to put his miraculous powers at the service of a mother so extremely put to test. The disciples approach him and invite him to do something in favour of this woman. They say to him: Hear her out, see how she shouts after us. What pushes the disciples to intervene is not so much compassion for the mother but the disturbance caused by those shouts, which many people certainly listened to, thereby, drawing attention to the small group of Jews who came there. Then Jesus explains why he does not want to intervene: healing the daughter is not part of his mission. He says: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus, the Son of God, is aware that his mission is limited to the people of Israel during his earthly life. Jesus, meek and humble, does not want to go beyond these limits, so he does not want to take initiatives that are not foreseen in his ministry. This is a manifestation of great humility and docility to God on his part. Despite the compassion he feels, Jesus does not want to, miraculously, intervene. But this woman does not despair, rather, she approaches him, prostrates herself before him and says to him: Lord, help me! Jesus gives her a response similar to the previous one: It is not good to take the children's bread to throw it to the dogs. It is a harsh word from Jesus: the Canaanite is compared to a little dog. The woman could have taken offence by this expression and could have gone away from him, avoiding speaking to him after his refusal. But instead of feeling offended, she insists and finds a way of insisting that corresponds to Jesus’ word; she says: It is true, Lord, [therefore she admits Jesus’ word; but then she adds] but also the dogs feed on the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters. So this woman also shows great humility: she agrees to be compared to a little dog. But she manages to use this comparison to persevere in her prayer: if the dogs cannot pretend to receive the bread of their children, they can nevertheless feed on the crumbs that fall on the ground. What an encouraging effort the woman makes to save her daughter! Then Jesus says to her: Woman, truly great is your faith! Let it be done to you as you wish. Jesus admires this woman’s faith, admires her insistence in persevering prayer. Therefore, he agrees to go beyond the limits of his mission. He says to the woman: Let it be done to you as you wish. And from this moment the Canaanite daughter is healed. Although Jesus' mission is limited, he felt he could go further, because this woman's faith was visibly inspired by the Heavenly Father. Therefore, he felt inspired by the Father to be wholly compassionate towards her. Thus, this Gospel passage manifests the universal openness of Jesus.

We find this universal openness of God's love for man in the first reading. In the Old Testament, God chose a people, to whom he, generally, reserved his favours. But there are many texts from the Old Testament which clearly show that this limitation is not rigid; indeed, the privileges of the chosen people were ultimately destined to be shared with all nations. The Prophet Isaiah does not hesitate to say that God will lead some foreigners to his holy mountain, then to his temple: those who have joined the Lord to serve him and love the name of the Lord. God says through the Prophet: I will lead them to my holy mountain and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. The Lord cannot promise anything more extraordinary than this: to fully associate foreigners with the chosen people and introduce them into their intimacy. He then says: Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be welcomed at my altar, because my temple will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. God’s intention is that of universal salvation and openness to the whole world. When he grants a special grace to a person, this grace is never reserved exclusively to that person, but is given to her for the benefit of all. Think of Mary, who had extraordinary privileges. Mary received them to collaborate in the salvation of all men, which was accomplished by her divine Son.

In the second reading Paul explains his attitude towards the unbelief of the Jews, who do not want to accept God’s grace offered to them in Christ. Like the Canaanite, he too does not lose hope. In fact, as he says the hope of saving many Jews would be honour to his ministry. He explains that God’s gifts and calling are irrevocable. Therefore, Jews are always the object of special love on God’s part, and it is certain that, ultimately, God's plan includes their salvation. But they need to be likened/compared for some time, so to speak, to the pagans in disobedience, in order to obtain mercy. If they remain in their proud self-sufficiency, they cannot receive grace, but their difficult situation shows the divine intention of giving them unlimited mercy. Paul says: God has locked/imprisoned everyone in their own disobedience, only to show mercy to all mankind. This is the universal aspect of God's plan. We must, therefore, open our hearts to the universal love the Lord wants to pour into us. We must not remain in narrow perspectives, but must always have generous hearts to welcome all the people whom the Lord puts on our ways. +John I. Okoye

(GRAPHICS BY CHUKWUBIKE)