Jesus left Gennesaret and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Then out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, ‘Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.’ But he answered her not a word.

His disciples went and pleaded with him. ‘Give her what she wants,’ they said, ‘because she is shouting after us.’ He said in reply, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.’ But the woman had come up and was kneeling at his feet. ‘Lord’, she said, ‘help me.’ He replied, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.’ She retorted, ‘Ah, yes, Sir; but even house-dogs can eat up the scraps that fall from their master’s table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.’ And from that moment her daughter was well again. (Matthew 15:21-28)

One thing we are very good at as human beings is spotting differences rather than similarities. We do it all the time. Often, instead of seeing the human person in front of us, we take an inventory of all the ways they are different to us. The problem is that we actually don’t see the person, only the differences of skin colour, facial features, gender, dress, hair styles and so on. And pretty soon we have arrived at a judgement which almost never changes. We so often identify others by how they are different to us instead of all the ways in which they are the same as us.

One of the very sad features of this coronavirus time has been for some to blame people who are different for it. People of Asian appearance targeted and in some cases assaulted. People of African appearance blamed for spreading the virus at their Ramadan feast, even though those who were blamed were South Sudanese – the majority of whom are Christians, not Muslims.

That’s the kind of thing that we see in the story of Jesus in the Gospel this Sunday. Here we meet an uncharacteristically rude and abrasive Jesus as he encounters a foreign pagan woman. He ignores her pleas for help twice before sledging her with a racial slur. Jesus says he wasn’t sent to help people like her, only to people like himself – Jewish Israelites. But this lady is tough and desperate for the healing of her daughter. She defeats Jesus’ argument with her quick thinking and by twisting his own imagery in her favour. She points out to him that everyone is entitled to share in the goodness of God. Jesus has to open his eyes to a broader understanding of his mission. Admiring her sense of faith, Jesus tells the woman that her daughter is healed.

We, too, need to open our eyes to a broader vision of human life, less obsessed with difference and blame and more obsessed with God’s vision for human life and how we might support and help each other. It’s all about expanding the circle of who counts as one of us and what might be possible if we did.

Join us in celebrating at home this Sunday using the links below.

Celebrating At Home for 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time PDF  
Celebrating At Home for 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time iPhone & iPad

Lectio Divina for 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time PDF  
Lectio Divina for 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time iPhone & iPad