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“Foreigner” was as nasty an epithet in the Old Testament as “Illegal Alien” has become today. Then Isaiah came along. He made that unholy name irrelevant. In Sunday’s first reading (Isaiah 56:1, 6-7) this prophet says all foreigners who join themselves to the Lord will be family, just as gentiles were added to the roster of chosen people welcomed into God’s universal church by Christ’s apostles.
In Sunday’s second reading, Paul joins Isaiah in his war against prejudice, identifying as an apostle to the gentiles while using another of humanity’s deadly sins—jealousy—as a teaching tool (Romans 11:13-15, 29-32). He seeks out gentiles to make the people who fell away from Christ’s teachings jealous of those THEY considered foreigners. Paul hoped to use their jealousy to make the Chosen People realize ALL people have been chosen to serve God’s purposes.
In Sunday’s gospel reading, Jesus saves a Canaanite woman and her daughter for one of those purposes (Matthew 15:21-28). According to the Jewish teachings of their day, a Canaanite was considered not only a foreigner, but a dog—even to Christ’s disciples. Jesus uses the prejudice of the Chosen People as Paul would use their jealousy—as a teaching tool.
In begging Jesus to save her daughter’s life, this woman comes across not only as a mother like any other, but as one with a sense of humor. She responds to their prejudice with a wisdom that could only be inspired by the God they all worshipped. At first, Jesus responds to her request as any of his disciples might expect, setting the stage for a lesson that’s as relevant today as it was in those divided times:
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” he tells her, then adds, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”
She replies (and we can imagine, with a wry smile), “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”
Even Jesus is impressed by the power of this lesson, saying, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
This woman AND her daughter were saved, but we can share in their healing. What can we learn from this mother’s chutzpah? How about an appreciation for how humor can humanize and empower us in the face of bigotry? This lesson came loud and clear out of the 20th Century persecution and attempted extermination of entire races of people.
According to research by Dr. Chaya Ostrower, humor served as a vital, albeit paradoxical, coping mechanism for Jews during the Holocaust. Prisoners in ghettos and concentration camps used wit to “preserve our personality,” she writes. “They wanted to make robots out of us.”
We humans were made in God’s image, and we should claim His smile as our most recognizable trait.
–Tom Andel
I love how you use jealousy here. It can be a motivational tool and a positive thing. I think many people confuse however with envy, and treat it the same but it is not. Envy is resenting something good another has. Jealousy is wanting something good for yourself. We should all strive to have the latter in our relationship with God as we continue on our journeys to set ourselves apart with Him and through Him.
Maybe a more productive emotion for us to pursue when it comes to our relationship with God is passion rather than jealousy or envy, Jesus himself experienced passion as he prayed to his Father for the relief of His presence as he was about to be crucified. Passion is something we can all share in vs. a jealousy or envy that implies competition or exclusion. Love of God is a feast where there’s more than enough for everyone to enjoy with each other–while sharing a passionate smile.
The Lord offers many examples of how to Minister to those needing spiritual nourishing. Missionary work often goes through the stomach first as it is very difficult to feed people the word of God when they are starving.
Corporal and Spiritual works of mercy are typically linked together in helping people to know who Jesus is, and how much He loves them.
As Paul states in the 2nd reading for this Sunday, “the gifts of God are irrevocable,” but he often needs our help dispensing them.
Agreed, Thomas, but it seems the need for help dispensing God’s gifts is ours. We acknowledge our need every time we sing or recite the St. Francis prayer: “Make me a channel of your peace,” which inspires us to seek help seeing beyond ourselves. “Grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console…to be understood as to understand…and to be loved as to love. God’s gifts are ours to share. We sometimes need help seeing them God’s way.
The contrast between prejudice and humanizing speaks loudly to me in your reflection. I sometimes feel that, in this day and age, the word prejudice has lost some of its stigma. For many on social media, it is remarkably easy to make a judgment before having all the information necessary to make an informed decision—to pre-judge.
And perhaps that is the lazy way out. It takes effort to look beyond our first impression and see the other person as someone worthy of the same dignity and humanity that we claim for ourselves. Prejudice allows us to avoid that effort by putting people into categories rather than encountering them as individuals.
And once we do that, it becomes a competition: I am better than you. I am more deserving than you. I belong, and you don’t. The Canaanite woman turns that thinking on its head. Her humor and humility expose the absurdity of drawing a line between those who deserve to be at God’s table and those who do not.
Perhaps this is one of the important lessons in your reflection: humor can humanize because it can break down the walls that prejudice builds. It reminds us that the person on the other side of the wall is not a category, a label, or an opponent—but a fellow human being, made in the image of God.
Agreed, George, and that’s reflected in our Sports these days. These tests of agility have become tests of tolerance, and many times the competitors fail miserably. This intolerance turns virulent encounters in the arena into viral moments with which the world can identify. We can either take sides or turn these into teachable moments for ourselves and our children. We can even share a laugh at humanity’s expense and try to do better.
What I enjoy most from this reading is the fact that this is a lesson that still applies to today’s time, as do all the teachings in the Bible. We can relate and reflect on our personal “jealousy-ies” and turn those into the ways we can draw closer to God. We can also use this teaching to show Inclusion without having to make “a show” about how we are including others. Our actions will speak louder than our words, therefore, loudest to God.
Yes, Rachel, Jesus taught by doing. He didn’t tell his disciples not to prejudge; he gave the Canaanite woman the opportunity to overcome their prejudice with wisdom-filled wit. We can imagine that was inspired by the Holy Spirit, used by Jesus as a teaching opportunity, and smiled upon by God to help us all share that family trait.