Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time


In the gospel we heard today about the incident of Jesus and the Canaanite women. She has a real need, and she cries out to him. But He refers to her people as dogs and says that he came only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. Huh?[1].

The best way to understand all this is to realize that the readings are speaking about the spread of faith, and in the Gospel Jesus plays the role of the fervent Jew at odds with the rest of the world. The Canaanite Woman has no claim on the gift of the Jews, but she still receives healing for her daughter. Why? Because her faith is more powerful than her ancestry.

Faith is a raging fire. It spreads from person to person. When we are exposed to a person of faith, our faith grows. As our faith grows, we ignite others with the fire of God’s love. As others grow in faith, our faith increases. The Fire is the Fire of the Holy Spirit. Nothing can stop the flame. Nothing can stop the Spirit.

When it comes to the Fire of Faith, the Love of God, the Holy Spirit, we have got to allow God to be God and stop putting Him in some sort of box that we have created. We can’t be telling God how He should act. We can’t be telling others that we have the inner knowledge of whether God is in their lives or not.

I am tired of so-called Christians claiming that Catholics are not real Christians. I am tired of Catholics claiming that other Christians really don’t know Christ. I am tired of anyone who claims that God’s grace and love cannot be poured forth on someone who does not claim Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior. Let God be God! Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit upon the world. Not just upon those people we say should receive the Holy Spirit, but upon the world. The world, includes the Hindu Mahatma Ghandi and all good and spiritual Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Moslems and even Christians.

Everything that we do, everything that has value is about the Love of God whom we have been graced to know as Jesus the Christ. The Mercy of God is infinitely greater than people’s conception of His Mercy.

The point is that the Mercy of God is infinitely greater, and God is infinitely greater than human beings. Human beings put others in hell if they don’t fit into their nifty box that they label Christianity. When we shut others out of our lives due to our own inflated self worth, our own pride, we deprive ourselves of being inflamed by the fire of God they have been given by the Holy and Merciful One. Why was Billy Graham’s daughter sitting in the third row from the front at Pope John Paul II’s funeral? She was there because the Vatican recognized and respected the Power of God present in the Billy Graham ministries[2]

Jesus sees all that is good within the human heart. He saw the faith of the Canaanite woman. He sees your faith and my faith. He knows how we are trying our best to serve Him. How wonderful is that?! He knows us better than we know ourselves. He Loves us more than we love ourselves.

And so, we come to worship as a community. When we worship, we are exposed to each other’s faith. We are inflamed by each other’s faith. When we bring up the gifts of bread and wine in the offertory procession, we use these symbols to represent all that we have and all that we are. We offer these gifts to God, and He transforms them into the Body and Blood of Jesus, the Eternal Sacrifice of Love.

“Throw fire!” That is what we have been called to do. We are called to throw the fire of God’s love upon the world. We have also been called to allow ourselves to be exposed to the fire of God’s love in others.

We trust in God whose mercy and compassion is greater than we can even imagine. May we have the humility to experience His Love in others ■

[1] Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Readings: Isa 56: 1, 6-7; Psalm 67; Rom 11: 13-15, 29-32; Mt 15: 21-28.
[2] William Franklin Graham Jr., KBE (born November 7, 1918) better known as Billy Graham, is an evangelist and an Evangelical Christian. He has been a spiritual adviser to multiple U.S. presidents and was number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for the 20th century. He is a Southern Baptist. Graham has preached in person to more people around the world than anyone who has ever lived. As of 1993, more than 2.5 million people had stepped forward at his crusades to "accept Jesus Christ as their personal saviour." As of 2002, Graham's lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped two billion.

Illustration: Rembrandt van Rijn, Christ and the Canaanite Woman (1650), Pen and brown ink, brown wash, corrected with white bodycolor7 7/8 x 11 in. 83.GG.199. Modeling his figures with fine hatching, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn displayed a wide variety in the width and character of his lines. Correcting and altering the composition as he worked, he partially blotted out one of the onlookers' faces and covered Christ's left hand and foot with white bodycolor. The lightly sketched landscape at the right typifies Rembrandt's characteristic use of space and light, easily suggested with ink alone. In the 1640s, Rembrandt preferred to draw directly with pen and ink, unlike most of his contemporaries, who began their drawings with preliminary pencil or chalk sketches, then covered over those lines with ink.

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Y entonces uno se queda con la Iglesia, que me ofrece lo único que debe ofrecerme la Iglesia: el conocimiento de que ya estamos salvados –porque esa es la primera misión de la Iglesia, el anunciar la salvación gracias a Jesucristo- y el camino para alcanzar la alegría, pero sin exclusividades de buen pastor, a través de esa maravilla que es la confesión y los sacramentos. La Iglesia, sin partecitas.

laus deo virginique matris


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