Gospel for Sunday, August 20: Matthew 15:21-28
XX Sunday A
21Having departed from there, Jesus went to the parts of Tyre and Sidon. 22And behold, a Canaanite woman, who came from those regions, cried out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David. My daughter is cruelly tormented by a demon.” 23But he did not even address a word to her. Then the disciples approached him, pleading, “Exhaust her, see how she cries out after us.” 24But he answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25But that one came and prostrated herself before him, saying, “Lord, help me!” 26And he answered, “It is not good to take the bread of the children and throw it to the little dogs.” 27“True, Lord,” said the woman, “but even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. 28Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, truly great is your faith! May it be done to you as you wish.” And from that instant her daughter was healed.”
Mt 15:21-28
Dear Sisters and Brothers of the Misericordie, I am Carlo Miglietta, doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it).
Also today I share with you a short meditation thought on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
The miracle of the healing of the daughter of the Canaanite woman is reported to us by the evangelist Mark (Mk 7:24-30) and the evangelist Matthew (Mt 15:21-28). Matthew’s text exploits the Markan material, but amplifies it with some additions and emphases.
The community to which Matthew is writing is of Jewish origin, and it experiences the great trauma of the early Church, which came from it. Is salvation reserved for the chosen people? To be redeemed, must one observe all the requirements of the Law of Israel, starting with circumcision? It was the great diatribe that literally tore apart the early Christian community, divided between the Jewish-Christians who demanded even from the Gentiles the observance of the entire Torah, and the ethnic-Christians, for whom Paul was the spokesman, who claimed that the newness of Jesus Christ no longer included access to God through Judaism.
Matthew is preparing his community of Jews to “grow up” toward a new mindset and a different conception of Faith, and in the preceding verses he has reported a speech by Jesus of heavy contestation to norms of ritual purity, in favor of the inwardness of Faith itself (Mt 15:1-20).
Now Jesus “went out” from there (Mt 15:21): he begins a journey, he makes exodus to pagan lands, to those Canaanites who were not only idolaters but Israel’s historical enemies. Mark says Jesus went to pagan lands, Matthew only that he “withdrew toward,” meaning he moves toward but still remains in the land of Israel. But a Canaanite woman, “coming out of those regions” (Mt 15:22), begs him to heal her possessed daughter. The encounter is midway: both Jesus and the woman move toward each other.
Jesus’ strange silence
Jesus does not leave Israel because he knows that his mission is first and foremost the fulfillment of his promises to the Jews: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15:24). And to his own he will recommend, “Do not go among the Gentiles” (Mt 10:5-6). It is to the Israelites that “belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the legislation, the sacred service, and the promises; to whom belong the fathers, and from whom comes, according to the flesh, the Christ” (Rom 9:4-5). Jesus is the “amen” that is, the “yes,” the fulfillment of all the Messianic promises: “For all the promises of God have their ‘yes’ in him” (2 Cor. 1:20). The task of preaching to the Gentiles, on the other hand, will be the Church’s after Jesus’ death and resurrection: ascending to heaven, Jesus gives a mission to his own: “Go and make disciples of me to all peoples” (Mt 28:19); “You will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
However, we are amazed by this strange silence of Jesus: the poor woman who “cried out” her despair over her daughter’s infirmity, with the biblical “cry” of the poor and afflicted (Ex 3:7; 22:21-26; Deut 24:14-15), but Jesus “did not even speak a word to her” (Mt 15:22-23). But isn’t God the one who had said of the poor man, “When he cries out to me for help, I will hear his cry, for I am compassionate” (Ex 22:25-26)? He could have at least explained the limits of his mission, addressed some words of comfort to her. But this “rude” Jesus is part of one of the evangelical “paradoxes” that underscore God’s absolute: Jesus obeys the Father totally, and obedience to his mission for Israel alone is complete and without exception. It is one of those “extreme” attitudes of Jesus that we must get used to in the Gospels, which emphasize that love to God must be “without ifs and buts.” think of Jesus running away from home without warning to go to the temple (Lk 2:41-51); of how Jesus treats his mother badly to emphasize that true familiarity with him lies in discipleship (Mk 3:31-35); of the rude groom in the parable who chases away the virgins left without oil despite the fact that he is the latecomer, to emphasize an expectation of the Lord without limits or qualms (Mt 25:1-13); to the despotic master of the parable of the talents who “reaps where he has not sown and gathers where he has not scattered” (Mt 25:24); to the invitation to commit suicide or mutilate oneself rather than give scandal (Mk 9:42-47); to the command to leave parents unburied for the primacy of following (Lk 9:59-62)… It is a “literary genre” typical of the Gospels to emphasize the totality that love demands, a style with which one must be familiar.
An Annoyed Church
At the woman’s shouting, the disciples plead with the Lord to send her away, because she disturbs with her shouting (Mt 15:23). It is a Church that is often fed up with the poor, the disruptive outcasts, and wants to be left quiet for its “spiritual” life. Monsignor Tonino Bello admonished us “not to turn the page or change the channel when the disturbing spectacle of certain situations comes to ruin sleep or disturb digestion.” Of course, the poor often “disturb”: they have no schedules, they are always there to ask, they are no better than others, indeed they often steal, they cheat you, they are not grateful…
Authentic prayer
But the Canaanite woman is a model of prayer. She recognizes Jesus as Lord and worships him: “she prostrated herself before him” (Mt 15:25). Jesus had said to pray unceasingly (Lk 21:36; cf. 18:1-8): and here this poor mother does not cease to implore Jesus. Her prayer, “Have mercy on me” (Mt 15:22), is a request for mercy, to be filled with God’s love and tenderness. It is the poor man crying out to the Lord, “Lord, help me!” (Mt 15:25).
A prayer that is not simply a request for favor, but personal adherence to Jesus and his mission. The little skit in which Jesus states that “it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs,” to which the woman retorts, “True, Lord, but even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Mt 15:26-27), is not so much an attempt to obtain grace at any cost, as some have read. Woe to think of a God whose graces need to be “snatched away”! This is a blasphemous view, presenting a God jealous of his favors that he grants only to those who stress him out or resort to the “recommendations” of this or that saint. Instead, God is the infinite lover, who suffers when His children weep, and who seeks only and always their highest good and happiness! For Jesus tells us, “If you therefore who are evil know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Mt. 7:11).
Instead, the Canaanite’s words are acceptance that the Messiah’s mission is for the Jews, “the children,” and at the same time a request to be at least partially admitted to salvation she who is a “dog” (Mt 15:25-26). The term, certainly not a nice one, designated, for the Jews, the pagans: we so much love our little dogs, but these were, for the Israelites, along with foxes (Lk 13:32) and pigs (Mt 7:6; Lk 15:15), the prototypes of impurity.
A Great Faith
“In responding to those he encountered, Jesus looked for the faith present in the other, as if he wanted to awaken and bring out his faith…Jesus looked for genuine faith in those he encountered, and when it was present he could say, “Your faith has saved you.” Note that Jesus never said, “I have saved you,” but rather, “Your faith has saved you” (Mk. 5:34 and par.; 10:52; Lk. 7:50; 17:19; 18:42); “Go, and let it be done according to your faith” (Mt. 8:13); “Woman, truly great is your faith! May it be done to you as you desire’ (Mt 15:28)” (E. Bianchi).
Benedict XVI wrote: “At the beginning of being a Christian there is not an ethical decision or a great idea, but rather the encounter… with a Person, who gives life a new horizon and thereby the decisive direction” (Deus caritas est, no. 1). Jesus teaches that nothing resists faith in him, even when it is in the measure of a mustard seed (cf. Mt 17:20; Lk 17:6), “the smallest of all the seeds that are on the earth” (Mk 4:31); that one must not doubt (cf. Mk 11:23; Mt 21:21), because “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mk 9:23): for he who adheres to him, Lord of life, Risen from the dead, with him conquers death, sickness, anguish, every creaturely limitation (Rom 6:3-11).
Bread for all
This passage prepares Matthew’s community for openness to all nations. In the previous chapter Matthew recounted the multiplication of the loaves. The disciples did not understand the importance of “the children’s bread.” “often hungrier for the true bread of God are the atheists, like this pagan woman… We have so much of this bread, we are saturated to the point of nausea… The Syro-Phoenician, on the other hand, understands so well the power of this bread, that crumbs are enough to save her daughter… At indifferent, atheists, materialists, poor people of all kinds, not of the church, people “other” than us, it happens that we enjoy the true bread that, broken, frees to make alive” (S. Fausti).
Of that bread, after the Israelites had been abundantly fed, there were “twelve baskets” left over (Mt 14:20): “What the Canaanite woman perceives, with great insight, is that at the banquet of the Kingdom bread is not counted: there is an overabundance of it for everyone, and no one runs the risk of running out of it… The woman’s insight, perhaps, also makes it clear to Jesus himself that the times are approaching, when even the little dogs will be admitted to the banquet hall” (A. Mello). It will be the turn of the twelve Apostles and then all the disciples to break the bread from the twelve baskets for all the nations.
Happy Mercy to all!
Anyone who would like to read a more complete exegesis of the text, or some insights, please ask me at migliettacarlo@gmail.com.