Homily #183
Persevere!
Overcoming Personal & Societal Divisions Through Boldness of Persistent Faith
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Aug. 16, 2020
A father and his teenage son worked on a car engine with a dead battery for the first time. At times, the father oddly remained silent to his son’s questions. Other times, the father showed the son what to do. “Here’s how to connect the red cable to the battery,” the father says. After many frustrating moments, the car engine is eventually fixed. The son says to his mom, “Hey Mom, Pop and I fixed the car!” Of course, the father was the one who mainly jump-started the car engine, but through his silence or actions showed his son how to fix problems together.
Like the teenager in this story, we too experience God leading us, so that together with God – God and humans together – we eventually address the problems on our earthly journey. When approaching our personal fears, our family problems and societal evils, do not forget the Lord, even when God does not seem to answer our persistent faith. We cannot fix the dead battery of personal or society’s car engine by ourselves without God.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus and the Canaanite woman are like the father and son working together to jump start the dead battery. According to Catholic biblical writer, Gayle Somers from St. Thomas Parish in Arizona, who has led parish Bible studies for many decades, to understand the story of today’s Gospel with the Canaanite woman and Jesus’ apparent cold shoulder treatment, we must first look at the entire context of the chapter in which we find the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15.
Prior to the verses on the Canaanite woman, Jesus had just confronted the Pharisees who opposed his mission. It was after this that Jesus then entered into deep pagan or Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon where he encountered this woman. But notice: Whereas the Jewish Pharisees reject Jesus, the pagan Canaanite woman on the other hand boldly and persistently declares her faith in Jesus to solve her personal, family and social demons.
In her faith, she calls Jesus “Lord” and “Son of David.” She also brings her problems to Jesus: “My daughter is tormented by a demon.” Contrary to our expectation, Jesus’ first response to her faith…. is to “not say a word to her.” Jesus is silent. (This is awkward; after all, I thought Jesus wanted people to come to faith in him.)
However, she is so vocally bothersome and annoyingly loud that even the disciples ask Jesus to send her away. Jesus, aware of the deep racial divisions between the Canaanites tribe and the Jewish tribe of Israel, acknowledges the historical hurts. We are uncomfortable that Jesus replied that he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house or the tribe or the race of Israel & that Jesus gives her faith the cold treatment. Yet she presses on, and Jesus gives her more cold shoulder treatment that all Jews would have understood: The Canaanite were treated like dogs. Feed the children first before feeding the family pets, the Jews say. This is the fourth rejection. BUT she still goes to Jesus to solve her demons with this act of faith: “Even the dogs eat scraps that fall from the table.”
Like the boy who was shown how to fix a dead battery after painful effort, step by step, the persistent Canaanite woman problems were eventually healed. In our personal, family and societal demons today, are we bold and persistent with our faith? Or do we forget our faith when it seems that God does not reply to it? Take, for instance, the case of our current battles: the COVID pandemic. Health studies show that people are experiencing higher rates of depression, anxiety, fears, substance abuse, financial meltdowns, mental health issues, loneliness, and many other personal and family demons. The message from the “filial boldness” (Catechism 261) of the Canaanite woman for her and her sick daughter is that even when our faith seems like it is not doing anything in our lives, persevere! Persevere in not just faith, but bold faith, with the audacity to believe, even when God is silent in his response to your faith. In the Book of Revelation, endurance is the virtue of the saints during tribulation.
I should mention a word about keeping your faith alive not just in your personal and family life during this sheltering-in-place process, but also as a parish community. While we may be dispensed from Sunday Mass under certain conditions, we are not dispensed from keeping holy the Sabbath day. Do not forget the Sabbath and honor it as best as you can by supporting your parish in whatever way you can. Like the Canaanite woman, the stewardship of your time, talent and treasure expresses your faith. We need volunteers who can safely help the parish, either as lay ministers to help us social distance at outdoor Masses, as catechists in our parish religious ed programs, or as parents helping our parish school with enrollment or keeping our school running. Your time and talents and treasure are ways to keep a bold persistent faith during this difficult time. Parishes across the country are experiencing lower donations. When you hear the pastor’s parish finance report later, please keep your faith in mind.
Also, keep the faith alive in your homes. If you are by yourself watching this from home through livestreaming, remember that the Church is your home, the Church is your family, and you are not alone. If you have others in your family, keep the Christian faith alive. Parents all the more should continue to educate their children in faith. Be persistent in raising your children in the Catholic faith [from home].
And finally, concerning our societal demons, the Canaanite woman teaches us that there are non-material ways to address the social evil of racism. Just as we heard in today’s Gospel about the Canaanite woman, Jesus overcomes deeply rooted racial hatred and divisions through faith. Thus, we cannot solve systemic racism just on reason alone. We will not heal racial divisions with just the law alone. We cannot overcome historical discrimination on just material and human wisdom alone. As the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., taught violence is not the response to violence. Something – or rather Someone – higher is needed to heal our land. Faith is needed, and not just faith, but a filial and bold faith. Even if it seems that Christian social principles are not leading us in progress, the bold, persistent and continual faith of the Canaanite woman is a model for us. Humanity will not solve problems without God.
According to the Pontifical Council Commission Iusticia et Pax (Justice & Peace) document The Church and Racism: Toward a More Fraternal Society, the Church contributes to promoting the peaceful coexistence of all peoples by having us realize the “unity of humankind over and above any ethnic, cultural, national, social or other divisions” as having been “abolished by the cross of Christ” (no. 22). Today, we hear through the Canaanite woman, Jesus foreshadows his mission even outside his own race and culture. Jesus is not tribal but his mission is universal. Jesus’ mission is katolicos! It is not just within the tribe or one race or one people, but applicable to the entire world. He shows us that there is one race, the human race, to love. Like the Second Reading in Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul describes his katilocos mission, not just to the Jewish race, but also as the “Apostle to the Gentiles.”
In closing, dear brothers and sisters, the Canaanite woman teaches us to not just have faith but to have a bold and persistent and enduring faith in Jesus Christ as the way to reply to our personal, family, and societal evils. May we too have this faith. May all nations, not just one race or people, always praise God. As we proclaimed in today’s Responsorial Psalm, “O God, let all the nations praise you.”
