Isaiah 56: 1, 6-7
The last part of the book of Isaiah contains the words of a prophet who lived after the Jews returned from exile. Today’s passage speaks of salvation being offered to all, regardless of ethnic origin or social condition. Christians have seen in this an anticipation of the message that Jesus will preach.
Romans 11: 13-15, 29-32
Today’s reading is the conclusion of Paul’s thoughts about how Jewish people are going to participate in the saving grace of Jesus. Paul was Jewish and he loved his own people. He was disappointed that most of them had not accepted the Gospel. Paul hoped that his success in converting the Gentiles would encourage the Jewish people to take a second look at the message of Jesus.
Matthew 15: 21-28
Bishop Untener's Homily
The "Sense of the Faith"
There is an ancient custom that, every few years, a bishop goes to Rome and prays at the tomb of St. Peter and the tomb of St. Paul. They were "bishops" in the first generation of the Church, and both of them were martyred in Rome. They gave their lives for their people, and bishops of all generations remind themselves that they are called to do the same.
In more modern times, during their visit to Rome, bishops also meet privately with the Pope and can talk about whatever they wish. I've been a bishop for 22 years and I have made four of those visits to Rome. During one of my visits with the Holy Father, I told him that, in my opinion, we need to find ways to tap into the faith of the lay people. The Spirit is present in the entire Church, and lay people make up 98% of the Church. But, while we consult lay people in many ways (for example, parish councils, where we talk about the administration of the parish) but we don't have any structures that enable us to tap into their faith - to get a "sense of the faith."
The pope pointed out that there are different "senses" and one has to be sure that what we hear is the sense of the faith. He spoke of the time Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was, and Peter responded "You are the messiah, the Son of God." Jesus then told Peter that flesh and blood had not revealed this to him, but rather the Father in heaven. We need to be sure that what people say about the faith is truly a sense of the faith, and not something else.
I said that, in speaking of the "sense of the faithful" I wasn't thinking of someone like Peter. Instead I cited the Canaanite woman in today's Gospel. She spoke up to Jesus and caused Jesus to change his mind. (Now, to tell the truth, I had never thought of that before. It came to me then and there - so I regarded it as an inspiration.)
That really is what happened in this Gospel passage. Jesus wasn't teasing the woman, as though he was going to cure her daughter anyway but was trying to draw her out. Jesus did not intend to cure this Gentile, but when he saw the faith of this woman, he was moved to do it. He saw things differently and did something he hadn't intended to do. The Canaanite woman caused him to change his mind.
I suppose this shouldn't be all that surprising. After all, Jesus was a human being, like us in all things but sin. It's just that we don't think of him that way. We forget that he accepted human limitations - he got hungry and thirsty, just as we get hungry and thirsty. He had to learn to read. He had to study the Hebrew Scriptures. He had to die, as you and I have to die. And, like us, he sometimes changed his mind.
Does Jesus Still Change His Mind?
Now here's something to think about: Does Jesus still change his mind now and then?
Well, there's no reason why he couldn't. When Jesus rose from the dead, his humanity didn't dissolve. He didn't go back to being simply the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, no longer human. The stories of his resurrection appearances to the disciples make it clear that Jesus continued on as one of us.
Jesus is truly the Son of God. He is "God made flesh." But in his humanity, Jesus is still like us. The great theologian Karl Rahner said that Jesus, as a human being, is forever less than God. He is the mediator between heaven and earth, between human beings and God.
Implications For Prayer
This has great implications for prayer. You hear people say from time to time, "Why should I ask God for this or that? God already knows everything and God knows what I'm going to ask before I ask it. Besides, God is changeless.
But what about praying to Jesus? Do you think that Jesus can still change his mind, as he did with that Canaanite woman? Can we influence Jesus as she did? Well, I guess we can, except that we seldom think of it that way.
When we pray to the Lord, we aren't just going through the motions. There is a real conversation going on, as there was with the woman in this Gospel passage. Which means that prayer is very simple, because we all know how to converse.
St. Teresa of Avila
The Canaanite woman in this Gospel reminds me of another resourceful and witty woman - St. Teresa of Avila who lived in the 16th century. She had a very special relationship with God, and she wrote a great deal, describing her experiences with God. One of the famous stories about her is the time that she was riding in a donkey cart and it was overturned, throwing her into muddy water. She said to God, "If this is the way you treat your friends, then it's no wonder you have so few of them!"
In one of her books, Teresa gives us some advice about prayer:
Remain in the Lord's presence continually, and speak to Him, pray to him in your necessities, and complain to him about your troubles; be merry with him in your joys... All this you can do without set prayers, but with words that fit your desires and needs. This is an excellent way to advance in prayer, and very quickly."
In another place she simply says, "Avoid being bashful with God, as some people are." That's a refreshing thought.
Mary
Teresa of Avila reminds me of another resourceful woman - Mary, the Mother of Jesus. In Luke's Gospel when she finds her lost 12 year old son in the Temple, she talks straight with him: "Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety." Mary wasn't bashful with Jesus. She was his mother, and she talked to him like a mother.
In John's Gospel, at the wedding feast of Cana, Mary tells Jesus that they've run out of wine. Jesus says, "My hour has not yet come." What does Mary do? She turns to the stewards and says, "Do whatever he tells you." Despite what Jesus said to her, she expects him to do what she asked. And he did.
Try It
We need to give that a try. I suspect that few of us really talk to Jesus that way. We can learn from that Canaanite woman, from Teresa of Avila, and from Mary. We might discover how close Jesus really is to us, and how close we are to him. We might discover how easy it is to pray.
Jesus is our brother. And we can talk to him as one of the family.
I suggest that you and I, sometime today, talk straight to Jesus about whatever we wish. I think we'll enjoy it. St. Teresa was right: "This is an excellent way to advance in prayer... and very quickly."
Originally given on August 18, 2002