Jesus' Teaching of Inclusion

 In today's gospel, Matthew 15: 21-28, a Canaanite woman, a non-Jew, approaches Jesus and begs Him to heal her daughter who is possessed by a demon. Jesus ignores her. When she persists, He  says to her: "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  Again, she approached Him and says: "Lord, help me." He replies: "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."  the woman is not deterred by that remark and says to Jesus:  "Please, lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."  Even Jesus' disciples were against this woman and asked Jesus to "send her away; for she keeps calling after us.  However, Jesus is amazed by the faith of this foreigner and says to her:  "O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish." And Matthew tells us that "the woman's daughter was healed from that hour."

O my God! I probably would have walked again dejected and hurt and angry.  Not this woman! No way was she going to take a "no"!  Her daughter was suffering tremendously at the hands of Satan.  "No, you are not one of us," was unacceptable to this Canaanite mother.

Jesus was well aware of the Jews attitude toward strangers and, in fact, their animosity toward Canaanites!  Was He actually teaching His disciples how to treat strangers, namely, that they, too, were part of the redemptive process and recipients of  God's generosity, compassion and love, just as they were!  Is it possible that, all along, Jesus actually intended to respond positively to this woman's request but led her along as a way of breaking through his disciples' belief that they alone were privy to God's merciful love?

Do you, do I, think that we are better than others, more deserving of God's mercy and that there are people who deserve to be sent away from "the Table of the Lord"? Do you, do I, believe that it is right for us to exclude others, to be indifferent toward others, to ignore their needs for help?

At Home with the Lord, Clothed in Righteousness

Today's first reading, Ezekiel 36: 23-28, the Lord says the following to the nation of Israel, and to us: "I will prove my holiness of my great name, profaned among the nations, in whose midst you  have profaned it.  Thus the nations [the world] shall know that I am the Lord God, when in [its] sight I prove my holiness through you. For I will take you away from among the nations [that are profaning my name], gather you from all the foreign lands [places in this world and peoples in this world who are profaning the name of God by evil actions against others], and bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you...."

On the cross and through the cross, Jesus clothes us in righteousness and puts a robe of salvation on  us.  We have been brought back to God, gathered from "foreign lands" by Jesus' obedience unto death,  His resurrection on Easter morning and His return to glory on the day of His Ascension into heaven!  In our baptism we have been sprinkled with "clean water" and cleansed "from all [our] impurities."  "A new heart and...a new spirit"--the Spirit of Jesus--has been put within us, our stony hearts turning into hearts of flesh!

In today's responsorial psalm, we pray:  "A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.  Cast me not out of your presence,and your Holy Spirit take not from me. Give me back the joy of your salvation, and a willing spirit sustain in me...."

May we sincerely desire those graces and return to the Lord, to our true home, we have strayed off into "foreign lands."