XX Sunday in OT:[A]: 1 Kg 19:9, 11-13; Rom 9:1-5; Matt 14:22-33

XX Sunday in OT:[A]: 1 Kg 19:9, 11-13; Rom 9:1-5; Matt 14:22-33

Introduction:  The universal nature of God’s salvation is that it is not limited to the Jews only, His chosen people, but also extends to the gentiles & foreigners. God is the God of all nations and He breaks the fence to include all people.

Readings: In the First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah depicts the beautiful vision of 'a house of prayer for all peoples.' Foreigners who love and serve the Lord, keeping faithfully his commands, will be brought joyfully into the Lord’s holy mountain. They too will join the chosen people Israel in divine worship. In the Second Reading from his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul rejoices in his ministry to the gentiles. He trusts that the conversion of the gentiles will prompt the Jews to conversion and he looks forward to the day when the Jews will embrace the saving mercy of God.  In the Gospel Reading from St. Matthew, we have the healing of the daughter of the Canaanite woman and Jesus praises the faith of the pagan woman and cures her daughter. We are presented with his apparent hesitation to heal her daughter until her persistence demonstrates her great faith.

Exegesis:  Actually, shocking to our ears, in perhaps the toughest language used by Jesus in the Gospels, he tells the Canaanite woman that his mission is only to the Jews - “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and that it cannot be shared with dogs, which is how the Jews regarded the Canaanites - “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” These words can be taken in a humorous sense. She knew very well that the Jews called the Gentiles 'dogs.' It was, of course, a term of contempt. Dogs are known as scavengers; they will eat anything they find on the ground. The Gentiles were seen as people who were ready to eat anything, including unclean foods like pork. Gentiles would have known very well that Jews used this term about them and were used to hearing it.

Now, this is one of the very rare occasions when Jesus seems to be very uninterested, even hostile to what seems like a perfectly reasonable request from this Canaanite woman. Right away it seems like Jesus is rejecting her because of who she is - a woman belonging to the people who were driven out of the land of Canaan by the people of Israel. She had a sick youngster whom she deeply loved and was willing to swallow insults of any sort. She hits right between his eyes with her famous reply, “Please, Lord, for even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

Jesus was charmed by her reply. She had bested him at word game, of which he was allegedly the master. She receives from him his highest praise - “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” Jesus holds up the woman's faith as reason for her healing. Her persistence and astuteness is rewarded by Jesus. The act of healing in the gospels is always a sign that the Messianic era has been inaugurated in the person of Jesus. So, the healing of the Canaanite woman proclaims that the era of the Messiah has finally dawned in Jesus, with the full implications of a prophetic word that offered salvation indiscriminately to all.

Joke: 1) A preacher was completing a temperance sermon: with great expression he said, "If I had all the beer in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river." With even greater emphasis he said, "And if I had all the wine in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river." And then finally, he said, "And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river." He sat down. The song leader then stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, "For our closing song, let us sing Hymn # 365: "Shall We Gather at the River."

Practical Applications: 1) Salvation is not exclusive: All the three Scripture Readings of today tell us that God intends salvation to be available for all. It is a truth of the Catholic faith that Jesus Christ, as God made man, offers through his teaching and through his death and resurrection the way to salvation for all peoples.

2) Let us be accommodating: Though limited in historical time, his teaching, life, death and resurrection have a universal effectiveness and application. He moves the fence and includes all and invites us to do the same. He does not make distinction based on ethnicity, religion, gender, social class, or economic standing. What really matters is ‘believing in Him and obeying His commandments’. 

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Introduction

Message: All peoples are invited to worship the Lord and to know his ways.  God’s gifts and his call are to Jew and Gentile alike.  Jesus comes to recognize the universality of God’s call in granting the request of the Canaanite woman.

Saints and Events in this Week: 19 – Nineteenth – Tuesday – Saint John Eudes, Priest; 20 – Twentieth – Wednesday – Saint Bernard, abbot, Doctor of the church; 21 – Twenty-first – Thursday – Saint Pius X, Pope; 22 – Twenty Second – Friday – The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary; 23 – Twenty Third – Saturday – Saint Rose of Lima, Virgin;