Matthew 15:21-28, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday’s Gospel can give a headache to preachers and to regular Catholics both. Jesus refuses to heal a woman because she is, in his metaphor, one of the “dogs.”

Whaaaaat?

You know the story. The woman cries out for help, and Jesus will not even talk to her. The disciples demand that he tell her to go away because she is a trouble-maker. And he seems to agree with them. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” he says. She is from Canaan, not from Israel.

Finally the poor woman walks right up, does “homage” to Jesus and says, “Lord, help me!”

Jesus would never ignore such words, at least so we Christians and Catholics believe. Nor should we ever be deaf to words like this in our own daily lives. But no. He says, “It is not right to take the food of the children [Israel] and throw it to the dogs [Canaan].”

Ouch. This is the line that is so hard for us to understand. So un-Jesus-like.

There are clues. She called out to him first with the words “Son of David,” a term hallowed by use in the ancient Hebrew scriptures, always referring to the Messiah. She is a Canaanite, who did not believe in any Messiah-to-come, especially not one that would descend from David. Yet, against her whole background, this woman seems to have belief in Jesus as Messiah. She calls him “Lord.” In Matthew’s Gospel this is an explicit admission that Jesus and God are one. Going just on her language, we have a definite indication that she believed in him as the Savior.

Surely he sensed this.

But Israel and the Canaanites had long been in strife. Israelites would think, how could “they” with their strange gods produce a woman who believes in the one God and in Jesus as the Christ? They couldn’t.

But maybe Jesus was drawing her out, teasing her, in order to strengthen her belief.

Perhaps he was quoting the word “dogs” as a reference to names the two peoples actually called each other. Something like this: “My people of Israel believe in the one God and your people do not. How can I give their food to you ‘dogs,’ as we call you?”

The woman’s quick wit provides a wonderful, humble, bantering response, that wins the day. “Even dogs eat scraps that fall from their master’s table.” It is a riposte, a parry, a counter-thrust, and Jesus loves it. She is saying, “It does not matter what a person’s status is as long as they believe. And I do believe.”

I’ll bet Jesus smiled a great smile as he told her how great her faith was. Maybe he laughed at her fast repartee. And of course he gladly gave her what she asked; he cured her daughter.

Doesn’t Christ’s Holy Spirit smile within you when you ask for what you need? When you let nothing stand in the way, like your own origins, your status in life, your sins, and maybe even your rejection (or acceptance) by others?

At Communion time, let us hold out our hands and say inwardly, “Son of David, have pity on me.” This is a paraphrase of the Canaanite woman. Out loud, our response is “Amen,” which means “I do believe.”

Let us mean it this Sunday.

*From the Sunday website of St Louis University