We hear in today’s Gospel about Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman, a woman from the Syrophoenician region, who was not of Jewish descent. When this woman asks our Lord for help with her daughter who is suffering, His response seems uncharacteristically terse. He seems to initially refuse her request, yet when she makes plain that she has deep faith in him, He grants her request because of this. The takeaway is simply this – He did come to save the children of Israel, but He also finds acceptable all who come to Him in faith. The message of acceptance, of all people being acceptable to God, is good news for most of us, since by and large we do not have direct roots to Israel as part of our lineage. We can still have hope though, if we come to our Lord in faith and like the Canaanite woman ask Him to find us worthy of His love and help.
There is a second lesson to be taken from all of this though, and one that often escapes notice when talking about this encounter. That lesson is one of acceptance that we ourselves need to apply to all of our dealings with others. It is clear from this Gospel that our Lord finds acceptable all peoples, and we are called to do the same. I think this is especially important to understand today, because I do not recall in all my years on this earth a time when people were more sharply divided than today. We seem to find fault in nearly every definable characteristic of those we encounter.
If our Lord accepts all of us, and desires that each of us come to Him and find salvation, no matter who we are, what we look like, or what we have done in the past – who then are we to find so much fault with others that our first instinct is to reject their company? Jesus came to us, to save us, not because of our perfection as individuals, but because we are all riddled with imperfections and problems, baggage and sins that should by all rights find us guilty of condemnation, and yet that is exactly what He did not come to do. He did not come to condemn but to save. He expects us to do likewise because we are called to walk in His footsteps. This is not an easy calling, but it is the only one that leads to life – it is the narrow gate that so few can pass through. Only those who eventually let go of all the garbage that encumbers us, like prejudice, judgmental attitudes, self-aggrandizing, and hate will make it through. We sometimes hear people speak of their lack of acceptance of others who are part of some grouping that does not on the surface seem to follow Christs teaching to the letter, as though such judgement was some kind of badge of honor – or who seemingly take pride in writing off those they deem to be less pious than themselves. They are totally oblivious to the fact that there is only one fit to judge, and NONE of us is Him. Our job is much simpler – we are here to be a help to all, to try to guide those on the wrong track lovingly toward a better understanding of Gods message – and if they don’t seem to get it at first, to not give up or write them off – EVER. To be patient, to be kind, to be shepherds who are always willing to help His sheep along is our call, and in doing so to show our own true understanding of His teaching.
The Deacons Bench 