Homily -- 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

Today’s Gospel passage seems extremely odd; real difficult to reconcile with Jesus we know from the rest of the Scriptures. We expect Jesus to be rude towards hypocrites; we do not expect him to be rude towards a woman who is in desperate need of his help. In Luke, from the very beginning Jesus is proclaimed as a gift “for all the people” (2:10). When he is presented at the temple, the prophet Simeon takes him in his arms, blessing God saying, “My eyes have seen your salvation which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory for your people Israel”. (2:30-23). So, it is startling to find Jesus initially refusing the Canaanite woman who begs for her daughter’s healing.

Well, it is important to remember that the communities of faith that produced each gospel had a hand in shaping the narrative of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. While Luke wrote for a largely Gentile community, Matthew’s was Jewish. When looked at from the perspective of that audience, this gospel is startling in a different way. For the Jewish Christians, it might have been difficult to welcome outsiders in. We can imagine these listeners possibly breathing a sigh of relief when they hear Jesus’ response to the woman that he was sent “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

And then everything changes. The woman is not put off by Jesus’s refusal or even by comparison of her and her people to “dogs”. Her persistence leads him to relent, healing her daughter and even exclaiming, “O woman, great is your faith.” For the people of Matthew's community, this passage would be a reminder that in Jesus, God’s covenant has been opened to all people of goodwill. God’s plan is that, in Christ, there be no “insiders’ or “outsiders.” No one should be excluded from the all-embracing reach of God’s love. Within our own communities, this holds a challenge: how willing are we to welcome the outsider?

All of us are tasked with uncovering and filling cracks in our faith communities by providing an engaged and inviting environment for all people. Over the past few decades, the Catholic Church has experienced a rise in a group called “Nones” (those people who do not identify with a religious group). And the statistics are alarming. These “Nones” can be individuals who have never given the Church a chance or “fallen away Catholics” who have left the Church due to life-changing events such as divorce, widowed, disgruntled, left home for college, and never returned to the Church etc.

The mission of the Church is to be Catholic, that is truly universal in its reach. The Lord says through Isaiah 56:7b; “My house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Church will never rest until the Gospel reaches every heart, every life. You and I are part of the mission. As Pope Pius XII said many years ago, by Baptism we don’t simply belong to the Church, we are the Church. And Pope Francis has repeatedly emphasized that we are a missionary Church, steadily calling us to go to the ‘peripheries,’ to minister to those on the outskirts of society.

This Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel broke through a number of boundaries, but it was Jesus who broke through the first one. He journeyed to Tyre and Sidon, two cities in Phoenicia where people worshipped pagan gods, and Jews did not typically venture there. Jesus went outside Israel and found people of great faith outside the chosen ones. We too may find open hearts and willing souls outside our own comfort zones. 

Think about it! Each of us is here not because we had a vision or a visit from an angel, but because some human being cared enough to share the faith with us. Are we willing and determined to do the same?

And reflecting on your own experience and interactions, who might you have excluded or overlooked in your community? How can you be more attentive to those who seek to encounter Jesus but may face barriers?

In what ways can we promote a sense of belonging and unity among diverse members of our Church, ensuring everyone feels valued and embraced?