Dear Friends,
In our everyday world, people are divided into insiders and outsiders. People are enemies or allies, acceptable or not, Protestant or Catholic, educated or not. How we understand heaven can divide Muslims from Christians. Sometimes workers and management see each other in hostile ways. The divisions in Congress are evidence that people cut each other off from working together on problem solving for the common good.
But division/divisiveness is not of God.
Consider the 1st reading today from Isaiah: “the burnt offerings and sacrifices of foreigners who join themselves to me will be acceptable at my altar.”
So much of Paul’s letter to the Romans, part of which we hear today, invites us to give up divisions and be reconciled with one another.
And the Gospel tells a story we very much need to hear, so that we know that Jesus, too, had a hard time becoming wholeheartedly inclusive.
At the beginning of this account, Jesus wears blinders. He has been immersed in a ministry to his fellow Jews. But now, he crosses a geographic boundary into a foreign territory. A Syro-Phoenician woman calls out to him, but he did not respond.
In last week’s Gospel, Jesus was able to stop the wind and waves, but now, he could not stop the woman’s persistent appeal for help. Mothers worldwide, in every age, will do anything they can to achieve their children’s well-being. She would not take no for an answer. Even the insult Jesus sent her way would not deflect her from her point, as she deftly turned Jesus’ words into a compliment of sorts.
“Lord, help me,” she begged. We heard the same cry for help on Peter’s lips last week, as he took his eyes off Jesus and sank into the turbulent waters.
Why should Jesus help Peter and not the Syro-Phoenician’s daughter? Why indeed?
What impresses me about this woman is how she did not let secondary issues distract her. She could have walked away in anger because Jesus was treating her in the stereotypical way women were treated then. She could have taken him for an arrogant Jew who looked down on Gentile foreigners. Sexist and racial exclusion are worthy of our combat. But she didn’t. She stayed on point, and her daughter was healed.
In our church and in our world, upholding life values requires that, as John Lewis reminded us, we need to keep our eye on the prize and make good trouble.
The Gospel shows us that inclusiveness in our mentality and practice is hard won. We are challenged today to have God’s own attitude in us toward humanity: to be welcoming and open, not closed and prohibitive. To do this with courage, we need to pray the prayer of Peter and the Canaanite woman: Lord, help me.
~Sister Joan Sobala
