“Bringing Salvation to All Nations” - 20th Sunday OT (A) – 8.20.23

“Bringing Salvation to All Nations”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

St. Mark the Evangelist Parish - Butler/Cranberry, PA

Mass Readings -  https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082023.cfm

In today’s Gospel we have this interaction between Jesus and a Canaanite woman. For many, this is a difficult Gospel because it looks like the Lord is being rude and dismissive to the Canaanite woman.

When we come across difficult passages like this in the Scriptures, we may be tempted to doubt God’s goodness and love. Because of this, it is important that when we come across a difficult passage like this in the Bible to remember that God is good, that He is love, and that He desires our good. This must be the lens that we view everything in the Bible, especially those passages where it is difficult to do so. Otherwise, we begin to approach the Bible and our Lord, with suspicion and doubt.

In Jesus’ interaction with the Canaanite woman, there are some interesting dynamics at play, that once we understand them, will shed light on why Jesus responded the way that He did.

The woman was a Canaanite woman, and the Canaanites were a pagan people who Israel had many battles with. Yet, the woman did Him homage and recognized Him as Lord, and Son of David as she asked the Lord to heal her daughter from a demon. However, when she asked the Lord, He didn’t respond.

The disciples asked Him to send the woman away, but notice that Jesus doesn’t send her away. Jesus says to her that He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and not the Gentiles. The Gentiles are the non-Jewish people.

Again, the woman does homage to the Lord and asks Him to help her. However, Jesus continues to resist her saying, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”

*This is seemingly an insulting comment that Jesus makes to the woman when he calls her a dog, however, what He is doing is turning this interaction into a sort of parable.

On the few occasions that people are referred to as ‘dogs’ in the Bible, it is referring to people who are sinners and live unclean lives. In this case, the dogs represent the Gentiles, whom the Canaanite woman symbolizes, and the children represent the Israelites.

Jesus is saying that it is not right to give the food that belongs to the children, i.e. the Israelites, and give it to the dogs, i.e. the Gentiles.

It was customary in Israel at a family meal for the children to eat first, and then the dogs were given whatever scraps were left over. It is not right to give the food meant for the children first, and give it to the dogs first, as it is not right to give the salvation that is meant to come to Israel first and give it first to the Gentiles.

However, the woman gives the very clever response saying, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters." 

The Lord was greatly pleased at her response and the faith that she showed, so He healed her daughter at that very moment.

What this passage shows is Jesus’ desire to bring His salvation to all the nations, but how in order to do this, it must first come to Israel. This is because through Israel, God desires to teach all nations who He is, and how to be in relationship with Him. Once Israel has received its salvation, then they can go out to all the nations and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to all people, including the Gentiles. The greater plan of Jesus is to gather all His scattered children, and lead all people to the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Canaanite woman got a foretaste of the redemption that was to come to the Gentiles after the Resurrection of Jesus. The Gentiles along with the Israelites were to be redeemed by the Lord.

So again, we see with this passage that Jesus is not being rude or dismissive to the woman, but He is using this interaction to bring to light His great desire to gather all nations, and lead them to Heaven in the proper order and at the proper time.

A couple other quick insights that we can pull from this passage is that many Church Fathers talk about one of the reasons that Jesus responded to the woman this way was because He desired to bring to light her great humility and faith.

The woman showed great humility in the way she did homage to Jesus and the way she received His message of salvation. This is in contrast to the Jews who often resisted Jesus in their pride because they said they were the ones chosen to receive the Law from God. Some did not receive their chosenness in humility, but in pride.

Also, the Lord in this passage revealed the great faith of the Canaanite woman. The way He responded to her forced her to persevere in faith in asking healing for her daughter. If Jesus had responded immediately to her then we wouldn’t see the depth of her faith revealed, nor would her desire for Jesus had grown.

This woman becomes a model of humility and faith for all of us. She teaches us how to persevere in prayer. There are going to be times in our faith life when it seems like God is silent and that He is ignoring us. This may lead us to get angry at God for not responding to us, and we cry out, “Do you not care Lord?!”

However, He is responding in this way, not because He is being dismissive of us, and refusing to listen to our prayers. He does this because He wants us to persevere like the Canaanite woman did, so that He may help us to grow in faith and perseverance. If He gives us what we want right away, then He doesn’t stretch us, and our faith doesn’t grow.

Let us give thanks to God this day for His goodness and love that shows itself in His desire to bring salvation to all nations. And let us pray that He may give us the great humility and faith that the Canaanite woman showed, and that we too may continue to persevere in prayer and never lose hope, as we continue to offer our prayers to the Father trusting that He hears our prayers and will answer us at the proper time.

*Reference - Brant Pitre, Jesus, the Canaanite Woman, and the Dogs (20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A), Catholic Productions. https://catholicproductions.com/blogs/mass-readings-explained-year-a/the-twentieth-sunday-of-ordinary-time-year-a