(For the audio version of this post, please visit https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Mass-Blog-for-the-20th-Sunday-in-Ordinary-Time-2026.mp3)
“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