There’s not one among us, I’m quite sure, who
doesn’t have stories to tell about praying earnestly to God for
something we dearly wanted and not receiving what we asked for; stories,
too, about the disillusionment we felt, not to mention the questions
that arose about the point of prayer and the value of prayer. Over time
I have found some reassurance – and maybe you have, too – in something
spiritual writers have long told us about prayer – that prayer is not so
much about changing God’s mind: that it’s more about deepening our
relationship with God to the point that our will comes closer to God’s
will – so much so that we’re able to accept whatever it is that God
gives us. And it’s hard to argue with that – if not always easy to live
with it….
Today’s gospel, however, does not advance that
argument. The story about the fiercely determined mother going after
Jesus to heal her tormented daughter makes a strong statement about
persistent prayer, mind-changing prayer, prayer that absolutely refuses
to take no for an answer. It’s a story with a happy outcome, but not
every aspect of the story is happy. For me, among all the gospel
stories, this one stands out for its power to puzzle, to surprise and,
yes, even to shock.
The surprising – even shocking – part of the
story is that Jesus doesn’t really come off all that well. He seems
quite out of character, doesn’t he, when he rather brusquely rebuffs the
poor woman. He does have his reasons, of course: she was an outsider,
after all - a foreigner, a Canaanite - and Canaanites had been enemies
of the Israelites for generations, sworn enemies. But was that a good
reason for Jesus to ignore her, to turn his back on her - even to insult
her by his talk of taking the children’s food and throwing it to the
dogs?
Some commentators, it’s true, get Jesus off the
hook by suggesting that he was only joking with the woman – engaging in
some light banter with her, and that’s possible even though it seems
like a stretch to me. There’s no reason to think Jesus didn’t meant it
when he said to the woman, “It is not right to take the food of children
and feed it to the dogs.”
And the woman certainly meant it when she
delivered her feisty comeback: “Please, Lord, even the dogs eat the
scraps that fall from their masters’ tables!”
The woman was as clever as she was determined.
She may have been a foreigner but notice how she addresses Jesus – she
uses insider titles like “Son of David,” and “Lord” – perhaps hoping
that these would get his attention and win him over to her cause. But
Jesus was having none of it. He was holding to a very fixed notion about
the nature of his mission – that his mission was to his own people, not
to foreigners. But was the woman deterred by that? Not for a
moment. Jesus could say all he wanted about boundaries, priorities,
nationalities. That wasn’t going to stop her – not when the life and
well-being of her tortured child was at stake!
For me, this rather jarring exchange speaks to
the authenticity of the gospels. By including the story, the evangelist
seems to be telling us that Jesus could listen and learn – grow in
understanding, gain new perspective – even be ‘converted’ to a new point
of view - because that, in fact, is what seems to have happened. But if
Jesus was human as well as divine, why not? Fast-forward to his
agonizing prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. His humanness was much in
evidence there, too. Remember how he had to struggle and sweat to bring
his own will into conformity with his Father’s….
And there’s another aspect to this story of the
Canaanite woman that is worth commenting on. It’s one of two stories in
all the gospels where Jesus changes his mind and in both stories it’s in
response to a request made by a woman. You know the other story very
well: it’s the story of the wedding feast at Cana where Mary, his
mother, is the one who gets Jesus to change his mind. All this is quite
surprising because in the world in which Jesus lived, women were
marginalized, to say the least: their rights were few to none at all.
All the more striking, then, that Jesus would allow a woman – and a
Canaanite woman at that - not only to teach him something but also to
get him to change his mind. All the more striking, too, that she would
succeed not only in getting Jesus’ help but earning his admiration as
well. “Woman, great is your faith!’ has to be one of the highest
compliments Jesus pays anyone in the gospels.
So, my friends, the Canaanite woman makes it
clear that there is a place for persistent, tenacious prayer, prayer
that doesn’t readily take no for an answer. And there is this, too: that
nameless, faith-filled Canaanite woman should bring encouragement to
those who find themselves on the fringes or at the margins. Women in the
Church come to mind. I think you will agree that, when it comes to
recognizing and affirming women’s gifts for leadership and giving them
the kinds of positions where they can truly exercise those gifts, the
Church still has a long way to go. Happily, this has come up time and
again in the whole Synodal process – not only here but across the world.
Clearly, it’s an issue that must and will be addressed. And as that
happens, can you think of a better model, a better advocate, than the
Canaanite woman? And what better place to focus our prayer on these
things than here at the table of the Eucharist where eyes can be opened
and hearts and minds can be changed?!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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