20th
Ordinary Sunday (Year A)
First
Reading: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 Second
Reading: Romans 11:13-15, 29-32 Gospel Reading: Matthew
15:21-28
“O
GOD, O GOD, LET ALL NATIONS PRAISE YOU!”
During
the World War II, a small group of soldiers were on a special
mission. Their good buddy had died of wounds he suffered during the
war. They wanted to bury their friend in a proper grave. They
wandered through the countryside until they came to a little village.
They found a Church with a small graveyard. The cemetery was
surrounded by a white picket fence.
The
young men found the parish priest and asked if the soldier could be
buried in the Church cemetery. The priest expressed his sympathy and
asked if the soldier was a Catholic. They said he wasn't. The priest
said he was sorry, but the graveyard was reserved for the members of
the Holy Church. He told the young men that they could bury their
friend right outside the fence and that he would personally care for
the grave. The soldiers were very grateful to the priest and they
buried their friend right outside the cemetery on the other side of
the fence.
Finally,
the war was
over. The soldiers returned home. One year, at their reunion, they
made plans to visit the graveside of their friend. The village hasn't
changed much through the years, and they easily found the Church but
couldn't find the grave of their friend. The priest recognized the
former soldiers and went out to greet them. They told him that they
could not find their friend's grave. The priest explained that it
just didn't seem right that the soldier was buried outside of the
fence. “So
you moved the grave?”
asked the loyal friends. “No,”
said the priest, “I
moved the fence.”
Today
is the 20th Sunday in
Ordinary Time. Each
of today’s Scripture Readings speaks of the universal nature of
God’s salvation. It
is not limited to the Jews only, His chosen people, but also extends
to the gentiles & foreigners. God is the God
of all nations and He moves the fence to include all people.
In
the First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the
prophet Isaiah depicts the beautiful vision of 'a
house of prayer for all peoples.' Foreigners
who love and serve the Lord, keeping faithfully his commands, will be
brought joyfully into the Lord’s holy mountain. They too will join
the chosen people Israel in divine worship. In the Second Reading
from his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul rejoices in his ministry to
the gentiles. He trusts that the conversion of the gentiles will
prompt the Jews to conversion and he looks forward to the day when
the Jews will embrace the saving mercy of God. In the Gospel Reading
from St. Matthew, we have the healing of the daughter of the
Canaanite woman and Jesus praises the faith of the pagan woman and
cures her daughter. We are presented with his apparent
hesitation to heal her daughter until her persistence demonstrates
her great faith.
“A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL
PEOPLES.”
The
First Reading of today from the Prophet Isaiah, is one of the
strongest statements of universalism
in the Jewish Scriptures. It refers to the period of restoration
after the return from exile in Babylon. The exile had made them
wiser, disposed to listen to the word of God; to observe what is
right and do what is just. The post-exilic era was seen as a new age
and it was a time in which the prophetic voice was raised up both to
exhort the Jewish people to fidelity to God’s covenant and to
expand their horizons to the universal proportions of the Divine
call. The Jewish people were in constant danger of falling into a
suffocating self-importance based on their sense of themselves as
God’s chosen people. So,
the Prophet Isaiah
speaks on behalf of God that the house of the Lord shall be called a
house of prayer for all peoples and tells that God's blessings are
available also to the foreigners. In the prophetic exhortation and
warning the Lord promises to bring to his holy mountain all the
foreigners, the gentiles who are willing to unite themselves to him.
This refers to the universal salvation, the necessity for
purification and fulfillment of hopes through
the arrival of the promised Messiah.
JESUS AND THE CANAANITE WOMAN:
The
Gospel Reading
of today From St. Matthew provides yet another insight into the
universality of God’s offer of salvation. Here,
we have an account of Jesus and the Canaanite woman, which is one of
the very rare encounters of Jesus with the Gentiles.
When
Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon, he was approached by
a Canaanite woman abounded in love for her daughter who was tormented
by a demon. She pleaded her case with him. The disciples want to stop
her and even Jesus seems to brush her aside. Actually, shocking to
our ears, in perhaps the toughest language used by Jesus in the
Gospels, he tells the woman that his mission is only to the Jews - “I
was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,”
and that it cannot be shared with dogs, which is how the Jews
regarded the Canaanites - “It
is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the
dogs.” These
words can be taken in a humorous sense and this could happen because
Jesus and the woman had the measure of each other. She knew very well
that the Jews called the Gentiles 'dogs.'
It
was, of course, a term of contempt. Dogs are known as scavengers;
they will eat anything they find on the ground. The Gentiles were
seen as people who were ready to eat anything, including unclean
foods like pork. Gentiles would have known
very well that Jews used this term about them and were used to
hearing it.
Now, this is one of the
very
rare occasions when Jesus seems to be very harsh – uninterested,
even hostile to what seems like a perfectly reasonable request from
this Canaanite woman. Right away it seems like Jesus is rejecting her
because of who she is - a woman belonging to the people who were
driven out of the land of Canaan by the people of Israel. The
Canaanite woman however is not frightened by the put-down of this
wonder man. She proves herself a match for his tongue. She surely had
no love for this Jew, but she believed he would deliver. She had a
sick youngster whom she deeply loved and was willing to swallow
insults of any sort. She proves to be one of the most remarkable
people in the Gospels. She digs in, takes Jesus on, and proves
herself to be the wordsmith he is, and even better. She hits right
between his eyes with her famous reply, “Please,
Lord, for even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their
masters.”
Jesus was charmed out of
his sandals by
her reply. He knew he had been whipped bad. She had bested him at
word game, of which he was allegedly the master. She receives from
him his highest praise -
“O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
Jesus holds up the woman's faith as reason for her healing. Her
persistence and astuteness is rewarded by Jesus. Clearly, this event
signals the inauguration of a new era, a new covenant of grace based
on faith in Jesus rather than adherence to the Law. The act of
healing in the gospels is always a sign that the Messianic era has
been inaugurated in the person of Jesus. So, the healing of the
Canaanite woman proclaims that the era of the Messiah has finally
dawned in Jesus, with the full implications of a prophetic word that
offered salvation indiscriminately to all.
PAUL, THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES:
In
the 2nd
Reading of today from his Letter to the Romans, the worldwide
saving mission to all peoples
is exemplified by St. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. Having
encountered intimately the Risen Lord and powered by the apostolic
energy of the Holy Spirit, St. Paul followed obediently the dynamics
of the Divine plan of salvation, i.e. 'to
the Jews first and also to all nations.'
He was deeply grieved that the Israelite people did not welcome the
Gospel and did not believe Jesus Christ as their Messiah. And yet,
the ever-positive St. Paul never lost hope. He was convinced that
Israel’s fall is temporary, not definitive. His hope
for the Israel’s conversion was based on the wholly-gratuitous love
of God and his unfailing mercy for all.
St. Paul also explains
how Israel’s fall made it possible for the Gentiles to accept Jesus
Christ and thereby stir Israel to envy. Surely, he and his companions
had to face terrible opposition to convince the pagans to become
Christians. Here he was a Jew, telling gentiles or non-Jews that
salvation came through Jesus Christ, also a Jew. Still, the gentiles
followed Christ in great numbers. So, St. Paul says if the failure of
Israel brought such a blessing, imagine the result when they all
accept Jesus! While the Jews have ruptured the right relationship
with God by rejecting the good news, they are still loved by God
because the election of Israel is irrevocable. The promises or
covenants with the patriarchs still stand forever. God simply doesn’t
vacillate about those who He blesses and chooses.
He
further says, in
point of fact,
both Jews and gentiles have failed to obey God's will at
one time or another and
have sinned - Gentiles by ignoring what their conscience told them
was right when they embraced pagan atrocities, while Jews by
rejecting Jesus Christ. These disobedience opened them all to God's
mercy, which is greater than their sins and is available for all.
CONCLUSION:
To
conclude:
A
story is told that one day a certain curious person in heaven asked
St. Peter: “How
many Hindus are in heaven?”
St. Peter replied: “No
Hindus.”
Then he asked: “How
many Muslims?” “Not even one,” replied
St. Peter. The man was surprised. He said: “Oh
then, there are only Christians in heaven?” “No there are no
Christians in heaven either,”
replied St. Peter. “How
many Catholics?”
asked the man. St. Peter replied: “No
Catholics either.”
Then he continued, “Heaven
is not meant for a particular group of people. Here there is no
distinction between Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists or Christians, for all
are welcome in heaven, and there they are all children of God.”
Now,
we are the followers of Christ and we believe in our salvation
through Jesus Christ. What is our view regarding salvation of others?
Is there salvation outside the Church? All the three Scripture
Readings of today tell us that God intends salvation to be available
for all persons. It
is a truth of the Catholic faith that Jesus Christ, as God made man,
offers through his teaching and through his death and resurrection
the way to salvation for all peoples. Though limited in historical
time, his teaching, life, death and resurrection have a universal
effectiveness and application. He
moves the fence and includes all and invites us to do the same. He
does not make distinction based on ethnicity, religion, gender,
social class, or economic standing. What really matters is believing
in him and obeying his commandments. These are the criteria by which
we will be judged. The joy of the Kingdom of Heaven awaits all who
are faithful to him. “O God, O God,
let all nations praise you!” And
this is the Good News of today.
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