"Woman, Great Is Your Faith" (Matthew 15: 21)

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 15: 21-28, a Canaanite woman from the region of Tyre and Sidon approaches Jesus, asking that he heal her daughter who is being  “tormented by a demon.”   Jesus ignores her and when she persists in pleading with Him to have mercy on her daughter, Jesus says to her:  “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” And when Jesus’ disciples complain about the woman, Jesus reminds them that He  “was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  “Lord, help me,” the woman pleads. She is not deterred by the rebuke of the disciples nor by Jesus’ way of talking to her. She knows  that Jesus has healed the sick and can help her.  She lets nothing get in her  way of securing a healing for her daughter.  “Please, Lord, …even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

This woman approaches Jesus in  faith and in humility, addressing Him as “Lord” and “Son of David,” titles of respect,  expressions of faith and recognition of who Jesus is! She will not be turned away without a positive response from the Lord. Jesus, in fact,  is moved toward compassion and affirms her faith. He says to her:  “’O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed from that hour.”

Is my faith strong enough to ignore sarcasm, rejection, opposition?  When others say things that are offensive to me, do I abandon my faith, walk  away? Or do I persist, as the Canaanite woman did and humbly plead for His help, knowing that God is compassionate and merciful even toward those dismissed as unworthy, “as dogs” by the elite and thus, in their minds,  not entitled to God’s healing power or to be treated with compassion? Am I able, in faith, to stand up to “bullies”, so to speak, especially those hardened by traditional beliefs that differ from my own faith?