Universality of God’s Love and Grace

How often have you heard someone say,

Well, it doesn’t really matter what god you believe in or how you name your god. It doesn’t really matter what you believe in as long as you believe in something, some god, some power.

Well, all three scriptures today do highlight the universality of God and God’s love and grace.

Isaiah reminds us that the Lord’s house will be a house of prayer for all peoples.

St. Paul is clear that although his own people, the Jews, have yet to accept the gospel God’s covenant with them, his chosen people, is irrevocable.

And here is Jesus, reaching beyond his own mission to the house of Israel, reaching out to a pagan woman whose interest is inspired perhaps not so much by any faith  as much as personal desperation.

What Labels Convey

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In our world, people come to us with labels: labels of race, income, religion, and culture. But we would be amiss if we were to confuse the labels from the real people that we encounter. In fact, as followers of Christ, we are called to be very wary about what labels convey because they are often at odds with the real people we meet…

God makes people. We make labels. So instead of letting our lives be directed by the prejudices that a label can carry, we are obliged to discover and to respect the real people God has made.

Faith Leads to Faith

This Sunday’s readings are very difficult. We have Paul seeming to speak in circles to the Romans, “you have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.” Then we have the incident of Jesus and the Canaanite women. She has a real need, and she cries out to him. But He refers to her people as dogs, and says that he came only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

The best way to understand all this is to realize that the readings are speaking about the spread of faith. The reading from Romans refers to the many times that Paul visited various cities. When he visited a city, he preached to the Jews first. If they rejected the Gospel of Christ, Paul then preached to the gentiles. Often, the Jewish people were so inspired by the faith of the Gentiles that they took another look at Christianity and opened themselves up to faith. That is why Paul says that their being closed to faith, disobedience, resulted in the gentiles turning from their sins, their own disobedience to the natural law, what they knew was right or wrong. Experiencing the gentiles receiving faith, this led many of the Jews to embrace faith.

While on Others Thou Art Calling, Do Not Pass Me By – A Homily for the 20th Sunday of the Year - Community in Mission

The Gospel this Sunday teaches us to pray always and not to lose heart. It is about being tenacious in prayer, continuing to beseech the Lord even when the results are discouraging. It is also about the Lord’s will to extend the Gospel to all the nations and to make the Church truly catholic. Let’s look … Continue reading "While on Others Thou Art Calling, Do Not Pass Me By – A Homily for the 20th Sunday of the Year"

Community in Mission

Let’s look at this Gospel in five stages.

1. Travels
2. Torment
3. Test
4. Tenacity
5. Triumph

God’s Mercy

The Church comprises Jewish converts as well as converts of Gentile origin.  The vast majority, having been excluded from the old covenant, come from every nation, language, people, and tribe.  The Lord’s house has truly become a house of prayer for all peoples.  The question each of us needs to ask, however, is: is the House of God a house of prayer for me?  By this I am not asking if you say some prayers when you go to church; rather, is prayer the center of your life?  Do you come regularly to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and unite yourself with Him in prayer?  So, is the church truly a place of prayer for you?

As we heard in the first reading, God’s justice is about to be revealed.  It was revealed two thousand years ago in the Person of Jesus.  This time it will be in the Mystical Person of Jesus, the Church.  As the children of God, we have not been faithful in loving and serving the Lord; we have been disobedient.  Prepare your soul through prayer.  Visit the Lord often and make the church a house of prayer for yourself.  Faith, obedience, prayer, and repentance will open your heart to receive the mercy of God in the coming trials.

You are of my tribe

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A Whether consciously or unconsciously, we often fall into the act of setting up barriers ...

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We are living in times when there is an even greater fear of those who are different. There is a great impatience with those who do not speak our language; with those who have fled their country and sought refuge here without going through the proper channels. There is no denying that we live in a world marked by boundaries, and we cannot pretend that it is otherwise. And yet, we recognise that we worship a God who lives across boundaries, a God that does not belong to any tribe, and with no barrier, save except man’s wilful rejection of His offer of love that can keep Him from His goal of saving us. 

Clergy E-Notes

In today’s poignant Gospel, the Syrophoenician woman whose young daughter was possessed by an “unclean spirit”, throws herself down at Jesus’ feet in the posture of a humble supplicant and begs for healing and exorcism for her beloved daughter.

Daring is not imprudence, or unreflective bravado, or simple chutzpah. Daring is fortitude, a cardinal virtue, and a requirement of the soul’s life.

Our Lord’s metaphorical response may seem brutally harsh and insensitive, but He merely reflected the genuine tradition in which Israel enjoyed priority.

Yet the Caananite woman cannot wait; her need is urgent and she responds with equal alacrity, engaging Jesus in a verbal repartee. What daring! What tenacity! What calmness!

God rewards daring feats of love. Impressed with her wisdom and tenacity, Jesus grants her wish. What about us? Is our faith operative enough? Do we in the Pro-Life movement have a lofty vision?

Never Give Up – Top Up

The Gospel of today teaches us the power of Persistent prayer and encourage us never to give up. Some people say this is known as the PUSH Formula (Pray Until Something Happens). God is always ready to answer. It is not about pushing God, but about pushing yourself into God. This does not give us the passport to treat God like one of those quick “pain reliever” pills. This is not asking for the sake of asking, but showing heroic faith.

The Gospel is situated in the district of Tyre and Sidon and shows us how a Canaanite woman, despite all barriers that could block her from having a favour from a “Jew”, was able to ask without giving up. Mark indicates in Mk 7:24-30 that she was a Syrophoenician woman. This is because those two cities were in Phoenicia. Mathew refers to the woman as a Canaanite because Genesis 10:15 presents Sidon as the firstborn son of Canaan.

Three Steps of Prayer

Bottom line: The beautiful Canaanite woman models prayer. It has three steps: trust, perseverance and humility.

Last week we heard about the privileged place of the Jewish people. As St. Paul says, “They are Israelites; theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; theirs the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.”

Today he says that even though some Jews rejected Jesus, still “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.”

In today’s Gospel we see Jesus’ focus on the Jewish people. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” However, because of the Caananite woman’s plea, Jesus frees her daughter from a demon. This exorcism indicates that Jesus will take in Gentiles. As we heard last week, we non-Jews are like wild olive branches that Jesus grafts on to the Jewish tree.

How does Jesus do this? Like the Canaanite woman demonstrates, the key is prayer. She shows the three steps of prayer.

Persisting in Prayer like the Canaanite Woman and St. Monica

We might well ask, “Why did Jesus not answer her prayer sooner? Why leave her in her agony for so long?” I don’t have the answer to that question. Human suffering is a mystery and we don’t have the full answer to it, only bits and pieces of the answer. However I think that the following are some of the bits and pieces of the answer. Peter in his first letter tells us that our faith is proved through trials (1 Pet 1:6-7). Think of how Monica strengthened and matured during her nearly twenty years of prayer. If her prayer had been answered on the first day, I am quite sure she would not have turned out to be nearly as fine a person as she eventually did. Another bit and piece of the answer is that we believe that for someone of faith all things eventually work together for the better. Paul in Rom 8:28 writes, “by turning everything to their goodGod co-operates with all those who love him.”

God’s Offer of Salvation

Today’s readings present a wonderfully universal perspective on God’s offer of salvation. This is a perspective that is very dear to us as Catholic Christians. As you know ‘Catholic’ means universal. Jesus came to offer love to all and all are invited to belong to the family of his disciples. As Catholics we are committed to an understanding of Christianity that is meant for all, that is offered to all and that belongs to all who want it. ‘Catholic’ was a name given to Christians very early when it became obvious to outsiders that Christians belonged to all walks of life and welcomed people from all racial and religious groups. The earliest extant example of the word ‘Catholic’ being used of the Church is from the first years of the Second Century in a letter from Ignatius of Antioch to the community in Smyrna. he makes the simple statement: ‘Wherever Christ is, there is the Catholic Church’(Ignatius to the Community in Smyrna 8).

All Equal, Each Unique

That ancient problem of the one and the many has taken a million shapes. It is seen in the battle of change with continuity, the clash of novelty with permanence, the claims of individuality versus universality.

The conflict also appears in passages of scripture that contrast the particularities of Judaism or Christianity with the universality of God. Isaiah announced a God whose salvation and justice would be open to aliens. “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” Thus, the psalmist wrote that all nations would come to praise God. St. Paul, in his reconciling claims of Jew and Gentile, reminded the Romans that a more universal truth of God’s mercy is revealed in the failures of both.

The Witness of a Canaanite Woman

Now, after the reversal of fortune in the Gospel reading, something beautifully ironic happens. Jesus was sent to heal the house of Israel, and although Israel had the age old covenants and prophets heralding the coming of the Messiah, the Israelites just didn’t get it. This poor Canaanite woman is proclaimed by Jesus to have more faith than all of Israel. What a reversal of fortune: she starts out in the story an outcast and the story ends with her becoming an evangelist, someone with a rich and wonderful relationship with Jesus, and an example to others of what a Christian should look like. Nothing in life could have been better for her than her encounter with the Lord, as difficult as that conversion process was. Again, she isn’t given a name. This is an invitation for us to see ourselves in this Canaanite woman for a moment.