Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Mere Crumbs?
Liturgical Cycle: A | Lectionary Cycle: II
Introduction
Year II. To a people that has almost as a whole deserted God, Jeremiah gives the assurance that God will never be unfaithful to them. There will be a remnant that responds to God’s love. The clue to this is as simple and tremendous as this: God loves his people, the ones from the past and the present. And so he loves us also. He loves us with a love that never wears out. His affection remains constant.
Gospel. There are some obvious problems with the story of the Canaanite woman. The words of Jesus sound harsh and discriminatory against non-Jews. Some exegetes see in it an exchange of wits between the woman and Jesus, reflecting the prejudices of their time, and yet fundamentally revealing that salvation is for all without discrimination and prejudice wherever faith is found. The way this story is told reflects the problem of the primitive Church: whether to accept non-Jewish converts. Everyone who believes may eat from the Lord’s table and is fed more than crumbs.
Opening Prayer
Father of all,
long ago, you chose the people of Israel
to make your name known to all the nations.
Your Son, Jesus Christ made it clear
that forgiveness and the fullness of life are the share
of all who believe in him.
Make your Church truly a place of encounter
for all those who grope for you,
that all obstacles and barriers may be removed
and that the riches of all nations and cultures
may reveal the thousand faces
of the love you have shown us
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayers of the Faithful
– That there may be room in the universal Church for the cultural riches of various peoples and for manifesting one and the same faith in a variety of languages and forms of expression, we pray:
– That we may have open hearts and homes for people who are hard to accommodate: strangers and refugees, the jobless and the poor, victims of discrimination and oppression; that we may do all we can to integrate them into the human and Christians community, we pray:
– That all of us here may be concerned about those who are not here because they are estranged from the Church, that our lives may reveal Christ to them, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord God, Father of all,
you set the table of your Son
for all who are willing to come:
for saints and for sinners,
for the poor and the rich.
Give us your Son Jesus Christ.
May we learn from him
to give to all those who ask for food or love
not meagre crumbs or leftovers
but the food of ourselves,
as Jesus does here for us,
He who is our Lord forever.
Prayer after Communion
God our Father,
in this eucharist, we have all been one
in Jesus Christ your Son.
He died and rose to life for all;
his likeness is reflected
in the face of every human being:
let it become visible in all.
Let his face not be marred or divided
by our prejudices and fears.
Do not allow our love to be less than universal,
and unite us more in him
who is our common way to you and to one another,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Blessing
Music from a single instrument can be beautiful, but the most beautiful form is found in the harmony of many different instruments in a symphony, or in many human voices blending in a chorus. May God give us the symphony and chorus of many cultures and peoples together, with the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
Matthew 15:21-28
Lord Help Me!
Jesus’ seeming indifference does not discourage this Canaanite mother in today's Gospel. Her inner strength comes from her maternal love and in her faith that Jesus could grant her request. The Late Pope Francis, in one of his homilies on this passage, had said that this passage made him think of the strength of women. “With their strength, they are able to obtain great things. We have known many such women! We could say that it is love that stirs faith. Heart-rending love for her daughter prompts the woman to cry and helps her avoid becoming discouraged even in the face of initial rejection; thus, this mother kneels before Jesus and says, “Lord, help me” (v. 25).
Jesus points to this humble woman as a model of unwavering faith. Her persistence in beseeching Christ’s intervention is an example for us not to become discouraged or despair when we are burdened by life’s difficult trials. The Lord does not turn us away in the face of our needs. There are times when the Lord seems insensitive to our requests for help, but perhaps such experiences are intended to further strengthen our faith. The Gospel encourages us to continue to cry out, as the woman in today’s passage does: “Lord, help me!” with perseverance and courage. She displays for us the courage needed in prayer.
This Gospel episode helps us to understand that we all need to grow in faith and fortify our trust in Jesus. It is important to nourish our faith every day, by carefully listening to the Word of God, with the celebration of the Sacraments, with personal prayer as a “cry” to him — “Lord, help me!” — and with concrete acts of charity toward our neighbour. While addressing the youth during the Asian Youth Day in South Korea 2014, Pope Francis said, “In your Christian lives, you will find many occasions to push away the stranger, the needy, the poor and the broken-hearted. It is these people who repeat the cry of the woman of the Gospel: “Lord, help me!”.
The Canaanite woman’s plea is the cry of everyone who searches for love, acceptance, and friendship with Christ. It is the cry of so many anonymous people in our cities, the cry of so many of your own companions, and the cry of all those martyrs who even today suffer persecution and death for the name of Jesus: “Lord, help me!”
It is often a cry which rises from our own hearts as well: “Lord, help me!” Let us respond, like Christ, who responded to every plea for his help with love, mercy and compassion.