Matthew 15:21-28

 TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR A

Commentary of Fr. Fernando Armellini

A good Sunday to all. 

We know how love blossoms. Loving relationships begin with reciprocal sympathy and some concrete attention, but they become committed when there is a declaration of love and then a commitment of mutual fidelity. The Bible tells us the love story between God and Israel. It also tells us the moving declaration of love that God made to this people and that he put in the mouth of Moses: "If the Lord fell in love with you and chose you, it was not because you were more numerous than others, because you are the least of the people, but out of pure love for you" (Deut 7:7-8). 

The Lord has fallen in love with you. We also say that the heart cannot be governed, and the heart of God loves the weak, the little ones, and the most fragile; of these, he falls in love. How did Israel experience this preference of the Lord, who chose them? It understood that it had to be different from the other peoples, that they should behave in a way pleasing to their God, and they would behave differently. 

From the religious point of view, Israel had bound its heart to the Lord, the only God, and knew that he was a jealous God. The Bible repeats it continually: עָנִי אֶלְקָנָה (ani Elqānâ), "I am jealous." And therefore, Israel abhorred all pagan idols. It did not occur to any Israelite to pay attention to any idol because he was in love with his God, and his God was jealous. 

Their moral life also differentiated the Jews, especially in the sexual field. Contrary to the moral corruption of the Greco-Roman society that we know well (just go to the literature...), they were very strict. The fear of being contaminated by others led them to live even socially apart, feel superior, and consider others impure. And this certainly did not make them sympathetic. In chapter 5 of Tacitus' History, where he talks at length about the customs of the Jews and especially of their isolationism; they are called even "enemies of humankind." Juvenal, in his satires, advises not to trust the Jews because if you ask them the direction of a particular road, or you are thirsty, and you ask him where there is a fountain, he will not tell you, or he will lead you astray. 

This was the antipathy cultivated in the Greco-Roman world against the Israelites for their isolationism. Jesus had grown up breathing from his childhood this isolationist mentality; he was familiar with the language used by his people about the pagans and with the epithets with which they mocked them. They called them dogs and also said that "the pagans are like dogs because they are not circumcised." 

Why were they so close to this isolationism? Did God want them to be so separated from other people? No, they invented it because they did not understand why the Lord had chosen them. Israel had been chosen to carry out a mission: to carry the blessings God poured upon Abraham and his children to the world's people. The prophet Isaiah says it in chapter 42. The Lord says to these people: "You are my servant, my chosen one, in whom I am well pleased. You shall carry the law to all nations." This is Israel's task. Unfortunately, instead of feeling chosen to serve the pagans, Israel felt preferred against the pagans; this was the mistake. 

Jesus soon freed himself from that cultural heritage he inevitably assimilated as a child because he grew up in that world, in that mentality. He freed himself from his fellow citizens when he changed residence and went to Capernaum, a town of semi-pagans. There, he began to perform miracles and healings, bringing salvation to those people. When he returned to Nazareth, they attacked him in the synagogue. He justified himself by quoting the prophet Elijah—that he had not brought Salvation to the widows of his people but to a widow of Zarephath of Sidon, that is, to a foreigner—and also remembering that Elisha, having many lepers in Israel, had healed Naaman, a commander of the Syrian army of Damascus, is an enemy. 

Now Jesus must form his disciples, who will have to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world, all peoples, nations, cultures, languages... But these Twelve are imbued with the isolationist mentality of their people. So Jesus must lead them to open their hearts and embrace universality. 

So what did he do to liberate them from these mental closures? One day, he decided to let them breathe some new air and took them out of the land of Israel to the pagan world. Let us listen: 

“Then Jesus went from that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.” 

Jesus decided to leave the land of Israel and journey to the pagan land after a heated dispute with a delegation of scribes and Pharisees sent by the central authority in Jerusalem. They went down to Capernaum to call him because they had heard he neglected the ritual purifications before meals. It was a ridiculous and meaningless accusation for Jesus but very serious for the central religious authority of Jerusalem. 

Like the prophets, Jesus could not stand the religious hypocrisy of those who substitute the word of God, the practice of righteousness, the love of the good, and the life of man with external observances invented by men and handed down by tradition. Religious hypocrisy outraged Jesus. 

Matthew relates his response to these mindless tradition-keepers, and it was so harsh that the disciples were embarrassed at the frankness of their Master, and when they returned to the house, they said to him: "Be careful when you speak. See that the Pharisees were disappointed and even scandalized by what you have said." Jesus immediately interrupted them, "Let them alone; they are blind and guides of the blind." Peter, probably also on behalf of the others, had the unfortunate idea to insist on the subject, and at this point, Jesus could stand it no longer and replied in annoyance, "But are you so foolish?" (He called them Ἀσύνετοί (asunetoi), "headless people.") "Do you not see that it is not what goes in but what comes out of a man that defiles? It is not the food that goes in, but what comes out of the heart that defiles the person: adulteries, murders, prostitution, thefts... These are the things that make a person impure". 

At this moment, Jesus needs to take the disciples out of this world to give them an experience of the pagan world; that's why he takes them to Tyre and Sidon. Let's hear who he meets: 

“And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, ‘Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.’” 

"This mother said to Jesus: My daughter has a demon" (in Greek, κακῶς δαιμονίζεται, kakós daimonizetai, which means: "the possessed makes the demonic behavior"). What was this girl doing? At that time, in the Greco-Roman world and also in Israel, when they saw a person acting strangely when the person acted irresponsibly and seemed to be moved by a hostile force that induced them to do evil to themselves and others, they said a demon moved them. It has nothing to do with Satan, not with devils. It is an opposing force inside this person because it's not her; it was, of course, about diseases that Jesus had the power to cure and often cured. 

When the evangelists relate these healings performed by Jesus, they do not only intend to tell us a concrete episode of healing he performed; they always want to load these episodes with a message for us. These wonders Jesus performed always symbolize what his Word, the Gospel, produces. When Jesus comes with his Word, something extraordinary changes and healing happens. 

What does the evangelist mean by the healing of this girl? Who does she represent? For the evangelist, this girl is the image of the pagan humanity Jesus encounters because it is the first time he leaves Israel. And with whom does he have to deal? With humanity moved by evil spirits. What do these demons do? They can lead them to commit atrocities, murders, wars, adulteries, robberies, and evil. This pagan humanity has not yet encountered Christ and his Gospel, and if these things happen, and they do happen as we know, it means that Christ has not yet come with his Word to our humanity. 

We stop before humanity, which Jesus encountered in Tyre and Sidon. Let us ask ourselves what spirits move humanity today. Is it the spirit of Christ or the demon of money that leads whole people to starve to death? The demon of pride, of the lust for power that leads to wars... That demon drives you to seek success and pleasure at any price. If these things happen, it means that it is not the spirit of Christ but these demons that need to be cast out by the coming of Christ and his Gospel. 

What to do? We will see the choice that this woman gives us here. First, she becomes aware of the necessity of finding the one who can heal her. Christians also need to become aware that humanity today, which we know is moved by demons, needs to meet Christ and his Gospel. We must not resign ourselves but must do as this mother did. We must seek, as she did, desperately, the healer. She recognizes in Jesus of Nazareth the Savior, the Messiah. Not other messiahs who present themselves as saviors of the world. Let us know how to recognize the true Savior as this woman did. She calls him "Lord, Son of David." She feels that only his Word can expel this demon from her daughter. We would expect Jesus to move to meet the girl at this point, but instead, a dialogue is introduced. Let's listen to Jesus' reaction to this woman's request: 

“But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.’” 

Jesus' first reaction is an indifferent silence. He doesn't answer her, and it's strange because Jesus never reacted like this when he faced those who asked him for help. But here, instead, it seems that he wants to be disinterested in this woman. In the symbolism of the evangelist, it appears that Jesus wants to be disinterested in the pagan world, to have nothing to do with the needs of this humanity in need of help. This is the way his disciples interpret his silence. They come to him and say: "Send her away." It is what the Greek text says, which reads Ἀπόλυσον (apólison): "Send her away." The disciples come to Jesus and say, "Send her away; let us not waste our time with these unclean people." How beautiful would the world be for them without such impure pagans... 

Through his silence, Jesus succeeded in bringing out from the hearts of his disciples the contempt they harbored for the pagans. And now he needs to heal them, for how will these Twelve go to proclaim the Gospel to all the world in need of being healed of its demons? How can they proclaim the Gospel if they do not want to cure the pagans? Here is why Jesus now wants to free them from this mentality. Let us listen to how he explains his silence: 

“He said in reply, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’” 

What a surprise; here, Jesus seems to share the conviction of his disciples. He says to the woman: "I must take care of the problems of my people." Why does he speak like this? In Nazareth, he was accused of behaving just the opposite: being interested in those semi-pagans of Capernaum. Jesus has a purpose; little by little, he wants to lead his disciples to reject this way of considering the pagans. And then what does he do? He embodies their way of thinking and judging; he behaves like a perfect Israelite, loyal to the traditions. In the end, he will bring the lesson to his disciples. 

The woman is not resigned; she continues in her cry for help; her plea represents the cry of all humanity today, still pagan, that surrounds us and that expects us to hear the Word that saves and liberates from the demons that dehumanize it; it is the word of the Gospel. This humanity is so demonized, and we know it, that we are not even able to listen to its request, but our sensitivity must make us attentive to their need. Let us not repeat, like the disciples, Ἀπόλυσον (apolizón), "Throw her out, let her take care." No, this humanity needs help. Let us hear this cry, and let us now listen to what the woman asks: 

“But the woman came and did him homage, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ “He said in reply, ‘It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.’” 

The contraposition "sons-dogs" is strong, and it embarrasses us, especially when we hear it from the mouth of Jesus. Some translations substitute 'dogs' for 'puppies,' but in Greek, "puppy" is ‘cunidion’ and here, it does not say cunidion but κυνάρια (cunaria) as a "domestic dog" is called. We must, therefore, interpret the opposition "sons-dogs" in its original sense. 

We would probably have reacted with resentment to these words; they are offensive. We would have said, "I'll keep my disease, but don't offend me," and left. The woman, no. The woman is very intelligent; she accepts the image of the dogs and develops it, carries it forward by saying: "It's true; people prepare food for their children and not for the dogs, but some breadcrumbs also fall from the table, and these crumbs are enough for us." 

The message we can extract from this woman's answer is precious for our present situation. For us who believe so little in the prodigious effects of the Word, and for that reason, it is so hard for us to understand that a few crumbs of the Gospel accepted with faith are enough to see extraordinary transformations in our lives in our society, so pagan. 

We are left with the question of this shameful answer from Jesus. Let us ask ourselves: To whom is Jesus speaking? The answer is clear; he is talking to the woman, and it is true. But, if we examine what he says, we understand immediately that he wants to transmit the message to his disciples. 

He is talking about bread. What does the woman understand from this metaphor of bread? She came to ask for healing, not to ask for bread. Those who understand the metaphor of bread are the disciples of Jesus, who know the Scriptures very well. They know that there is the wisdom of God, the word of God, which is presented as bread that nourishes life: "Man does not live by material bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God," says Deuteronomy. And they know this text very well. And they know chapter 9 of the book of Proverbs, where God prepares a banquet of wisdom, and he says: "Come, eat my bread, forsake foolishness, and you shall have life." 

This word of God is the food for a truly human life. But who understands this metaphor, this image? Not the woman but the disciples. Jesus continues the discourse precisely so the disciples hear the woman's answer. It is about the bread of the word of God, the bread of his Gospel. The woman wants to say: "It is true that the bread was prepared for the Israelites... But a few crumbs are enough to transform us pagan also; to cure us of the demons that lead us to an inhuman life." 

When Jesus sent out his disciples, he said to them, "Do not go to pagan territory; go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." It was the pedagogy of God, who had chosen Israel to be nourished by his Word and then to be the herald of this Word and this salvation to the Gentiles. This was the message that Jesus wanted to communicate to his disciples, and he brought it to them by the woman's answer to his provocation. 

Now, Jesus addresses the woman, but the objective is always to teach a lesson to his disciples. Let us listen: 

“Then Jesus said to her in reply, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed from that hour.” 

Jesus is educating his disciples but does not speak to them; he addresses the woman and says to her, "Great is your faith." That is, he puts this woman's faith before that of his disciples. Last Sunday, we heard that Jesus was addressing Peter, saying to him, "You of little faith." He, the first of the apostles, a Jew, has little faith; on the other hand, this pagan woman has great faith. 

Let us ask ourselves what greatness of faith this woman has. In the first place, she understood, before the disciples, the most important truth: in the heart of God, there are no first and second-class people; there are no sons and dogs; all are sons and daughters of the same Father. Therefore, the Israelites, the children of Abraham, like others from different cultures, religions, and nations, are all sons and daughters of the same Father; from him, they all receive the same nourishment. 

Peter and the other disciples will take a long time to understand this truth, which, on the other hand, the woman understood immediately. Peter will understand it some years later when, in prayer, in Caesarea, this enlightenment is presented to him through the image of that great tablecloth where there are pure and impure animals, and God tells him that there is no distinction between them, that they are all pure because they are God's creatures. And if animals are pure, there is no distinction between pure and impure people. They are all children of the same God. Peter went to Caesarea and baptized the first pagan, Cornelius. But, when he returns to Jerusalem, the other disciples will rebuke him severely. They will say to him: "Peter, what have you done? You have entered the house of an unclean man." And Peter will answer that he received the same Spirit we have received. 

It will take the disciples a long time to have the same faith as this woman in the unconditional love of God. Moreover, this woman understood before the disciples the prodigious power of the Gospel, to the point that a few crumbs were enough to expel those demons from the pagan society in which she lived and in which we live today. She also understood the pedagogy of God before the disciples: first, the Israelites were fed, but not to keep this bread of salvation for themselves, but to share it afterward with the pagan peoples. 

One last observation I want to make about this text. A miracle was not performed by a miracle of Jesus but by this woman's faith. It was the woman, accepting the Word of the Master with faith, who obtained the miracle that the demon was driven away from her daughter. It is the very image of the Gospel entering into society moved by many demons. When it enters, these demons disappear. They disappear when even a few crumbs of the Gospel are received. 

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.