The initial reaction
I had to this Sunday’s readings was: Huh? Here we have Paul speaking in circles
to the Romans, you have now received
mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now disobeyed in order that,
by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. Huh? Then
we have 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. The reading from Romans
refers to the many times that Paul visited various cities. When he visited a
city, he preached to the Jews first. If they rejected the Gospel of Christ,
Paul then preached to the gentiles. Many times the Jewish people were so
inspired by the faith of the Gentiles that they took another look and opened
themselves up to faith. That’s why Paul says that their being closed to faith,
disobedience, resulted in the gentiles receiving faith, and ultimately led to
the Jews embracing the faith.
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? Well, 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. And let me tell you that the world includes the Hindu Mahatma
Ghandi and all good and spiritual Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Moslems and even
Christians. Oh yes!
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. Human beings decided that since the
Jews were the chosen people, that Jesus shouldn’t bother with that Canaanite
woman. “Send her away,” the disciples said.
Human beings decided that the gentiles couldn’t become better Christians
than those Christians who had been Jewish. Wrong! That is so sad. 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? Well, she was there because the
Vatican recognized and respected the Power of God present in the Billy Graham
ministries[2], as
simple as this…
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.
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. At the Offertory, we unite all our faith into one big ball
of Holy Flame and give it to God, who inflames us with an even greater, an
infinitely greater 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] 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time
(A), August 17, 2014. Readings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Responsorial Psalm 67:2-3, 5,
6, 8; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28.
[2] William Franklin
"Billy" Graham, Jr. (born November 7, 1918) is an American
evangelist, evangelical Christian. From the April 25, 2010, when he met with
Barack Obama, Graham can claim to have spent part of his time with twelve
United States presidents, one which goes back to Harry S. Truman. Graham is
number four in the Gallup's list of admired people XXI. Graham has preached the
Gospel in person to more people than anyone in history. According to his team,
over 3.2 million people have responded to the invitation to accept Jesus Christ
as their personal Savior.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario