In the time of Jesus, as there are now, there were faith-healers and people who claimed to have power over demons who could be hired and, for the right amount of money, would pretend to heal someone or cast out demons. These people were charlatans, but people would pay the money in a desperate attempt to bring healing to a loved one. These supposed “healers” took advantage of people in their suffering and what they offered was not real faith but rather magic – the illusion of healing that was not real.
Our Lord knew of these faith-healers and how they operated. He also saw how they took advantage of people. The Canaanite woman also knew of these faith-healers and the promises they made. It is possible that she had already paid faith-healers in attempts to bring healing to her daughter but all to no success.
This context helps to explain this interaction of Jesus with the Canaanite woman.
This woman, who has heard of the man Jesus and who initially sees him as just another faith-healer, calls out on behalf of her daughter and, more than likely, she is willing to pay the cost that Jesus will demand. The disciples, as observant Jews could not abide faith-healers, they know that Jesus was not a faith-healer and they do not want to be associated with faith-healers so they ask Jesus to send the woman away because she, “keeps calling after us”.
Jesus knows that he is not a charlatan and he knows that this woman is looking to hire him and that she wants a magical healing for her daughter and so he says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Jesus has a mission from the Father and he is not for hire for magical healings.
But then something happens. The scripture says that the woman, “came to Jesus and did him homage”. The word “homage” is important here. “Homage” implies faith, it implies kneeling in wonder and need before the divine mystery. The woman does not come to Jesus to offer what she will pay him as one would when bargaining with a faith-healer, rather she gives him not money but “homage”.
What changed for the woman? Was it her desperation for her daughter, was it an intuition in her soul that something was different about this man named Jesus, was it the movement of the Holy Spirit in the woman’s heart? Something changed and Jesus sees it.
Jesus then tests it to make certain. “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Now, in this new moment, the woman responds, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” The woman shows her faith.
Satisfied and probably with an abundance of joy in his divine heart, Jesus answers, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish!”
Jesus is not a faith-healer for hire. Jesus does not deal in the illusion of magic. Jesus comes looking for faith in our hearts and it is in faith that our Lord meets us and brings the healing that only he can give.
Magic is an illusion. Faith is real and it is only in faith that Jesus encounters us.
We all know of Paul’s encounter with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus and how that encounter radically changed his life. The man who was so zealous in his persecution of the early church became the apostle proclaiming Christ to the Gentiles. But do we truly realize how much that conversion cost Paul himself? The second reading for today (Romans 9:1-5 – one of Paul’s later writings) gives us, I believe, a glimpse into the lifelong deep pain that Paul endured. “…I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.” Paul carries both the pain of seeing so many of his people – the Jewish people – not wanting to recognize Jesus as the Messiah and he also carries the pain of himself (by his conversion) being cut off from the very people he loves and so identifies with! The man carried heartbreak just as he proclaimed Christ as Savior to the world.
In today’s gospel there is a development in the thought of the man born blind and in his proclamation of who Jesus is. It is important to note that just as the questioning the man faces increases, just as his social supports fall away and just as the pressure on him gets heavier – the man’s knowledge of who Jesus is and his proclamation of who Jesus is increases.
It was more than just the dream for Joseph that led him to take the young, pregnant Mary into his home – even as he knew that his decision would not be understood by his neighbors and that he would be mocked and ridiculed for welcoming Mary. No person wants to be seen as a fool. Yes, the angel appeared in a dream and certainly there must have been the glory and power of God revealed but God never overwhelms our volition. God never manipulates. God always invites our free choice and our free response.
Recently the Knights of Columbus decided to begin an initiative to help refugees at the U.S. – Mexican border. Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, specified in his announcement that this was not a “political statement” but a statement of principle. I find it telling that the head of this fraternal, international Catholic organization guided by the tenets of the Catholic faith felt it necessary to make this distinction.
In a recent interview on the life of faith and discipleship, Pope Francis shared an expression often used in Argentina – the expression is “primerea”. “…the Lord ‘primerea,’ anticipates us, waits for us; we sin and He is waiting to forgive us. He is waiting to welcome us, to give us His love, and each time faith grows.”
What was our Lord writing on the ground with his finger? No one really knows but it is an interesting addition that the gospel writer makes to this narrative and it does lead one to wonder. What was he tracing on the ground?
Have you ever noticed that each of our Lord’s temptations in Luke’s Gospel is a temptation to something within the immediate and that our Lord responds to each temptation by his hope in the future? That Jesus responds by not getting stuck in the immediate but by looking beyond the immediate to the infinite?
