(Optional Memorial for the
Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome)
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| “The Woman of Canaan at the Feet of Christ” by Jean-Germain Drouais, 1784 |
Reading 1: Numbers
13:1-2, 25–14:1, 26a-29a, 34-35
The LORD said to Moses [in
the desert of Paran
“Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan
which I am giving the
children of Israel
You shall send one man from
each ancestral tribe,
all of them princes.”
After reconnoitering the land
for forty days they returned,
met Moses and Aaron and the
whole congregation of the children of Israel
in the desert of Paran
made a report to them all,
and showed the fruit of the
country
to the whole congregation.
They told Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us.
It does indeed flow with milk
and honey, and here is its fruit.
However, the people who are
living in the land are fierce,
and the towns are fortified
and very strong.
Besides, we saw descendants
of the Anakim there.
Amalekites live in the region
of the Negeb;
Hittites, Jebusites, and
Amorites dwell in the highlands,
and Canaanites along the
seacoast and the banks of the Jordan
Caleb, however, to quiet the
people toward Moses, said,
“We ought to go up and seize
the land, for we can certainly do so.”
But the men who had gone up
with him said,
“We cannot attack these
people; they are too strong for us.”
So they spread discouraging
reports among the children of Israel
about the land they had
scouted, saying,
“The land that we explored is
a country that consumes its inhabitants.
And all the people we saw
there are huge, veritable giants
(the Anakim were a race of
giants);
we felt like mere
grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them.”
At this, the whole community
broke out with loud cries,
and even in the night the
people wailed.
The LORD said to Moses and
Aaron:
“How long will this wicked
assembly grumble against me?
I have heard the grumblings
of the children of Israel
Tell them: By my life, says
the LORD,
I will do to you just what I
have heard you say.
Here in the desert shall your
dead bodies fall.
Forty days you spent in
scouting the land;
forty years shall you suffer
for your crimes:
one year for each day.
Thus you will realize what it
means to oppose me.
I, the LORD, have sworn to do
this
to all this wicked assembly
that conspired against me:
here in the desert they shall
die to the last man.”
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Commentary on Nm 13:1-2, 25–14:1, 26a-29a, 34-35
Once again in
God’s encounter with the children of Israel
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm
106:6-7ab, 13-14, 21-22, 23
R. (4a) Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your
people.
We have sinned, we and our
fathers;
we have committed crimes; we
have done wrong.
Our fathers in Egypt
considered not your wonders.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your
people.
But soon they forgot his
works;
they waited not for his
counsel.
They gave way to craving in
the desert
and tempted God in the
wilderness.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your
people.
They forgot the God who had
saved them,
who had done great deeds in Egypt
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham
terrible things at the Red Sea .
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your
people.
Then he spoke of
exterminating them,
but Moses, his chosen one,
Withstood him in the breach
to turn back his destructive
wrath.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
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Commentary on Ps 106:6-7ab, 13-14, 21-22, 23
Psalm 106 is a
song of lament. In this passage we hear
the remorse of the people who challenged the will of God. In spite of their great sin, Moses intercedes
for them and the Lord relents.
CCC: Ps 106:23 2577
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Gospel: Matthew
15: 21-28
At that time Jesus withdrew
to the region of Tyre and Sidon
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.”
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.”
He said in reply,
“I was sent only to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel
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.”
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.
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Commentary on Mt 15:21-28
There was a long history of
tension between the Canaanites and the Hebrews that was at a high point when
Jesus encountered the woman. She clearly knew what she was doing as she
addressed him as “Lord, Son of David” identifying him by that name as a
Hebrew.
Jesus, while the words attributed
to him are harsh, did not do as most of his own contemporaries would have,
begin throwing stones at her to drive her away. His disciples were begging him
to do that. Jesus recognized the great gulf between them but opened his healing
touch to the woman’s child when her faith in him was demonstrated.
In this selection Jesus has
withdrawn from Palestine to escape the persecution of the Pharisees and scribes
and to spend time training his disciples. The region they come to is
predominantly gentile and sets the scene for his encounter with a Canaanite
woman (in St. Mark’s Gospel it is the syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30).
The exchange between Jesus and
the woman is intended to describe the universal nature of the messianic
mission. Within the dialogue we see Jesus first refuse to accede to the woman’s
request (even though she recognized his authority “…the woman came and did
him homage, saying, "Lord, help me."”).
This same pattern of refusal and
then acquiescence is found in St. John’s Gospel (John 2:4, John 4:48)The metaphor being
exchanged in this banter refers to the “children” being the Hebrews and the
“dogs” a reference to the Gentiles (frequently referred to as such by Hebrews
of the day). While this seems out of character for the Lord, our translation
leaves out some conversational nuances that soften the dialogue. The word
translated as “dogs” in this translation could be more accurately expressed as “pups”.
It is also significant that the children and pups are eating at the same table,
again expressing the universal nature of the mission of the Messiah.
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Reflection:
Again today we are pushed by
scripture to examine our own faith. In
the first reading from the book of Numbers we hear how the Children of Israel
see something through human eyes and doubt the word of God which contradicts
what they feel. God had promised them a
land “flowing with milk and honey”. When he
commanded Moses to send leaders from each of the twelve tribes to scout the
area they came back saying that indeed the land flowed with milk and honey but
it was already occupied and heavily fortified – their human efforts would not
be sufficient to make a place for themselves in that land. They forgot God, became disenchanted, and
because they did not believe what God had told them they suffered a great
punishment.
In a twist of irony, the
Gospel story speaks of a member of one of the groups ultimately overcome by the
Children of Israel after their forty years of wandering in the desert, a
Canaanite woman, enemy from her birth of the Hebrews. Yet she saw God’s Son and believed in
him. She must have known that having
faith in such a person was futile. Not
only was this Son of David an enemy of her people, but her daughter’s condition
was incurable by medicine of the day.
Rather than sink into abject
surrender to the situation, with a mother’s love she called to Jesus, perhaps
expecting to be stoned by his followers (she must have seen the disciples
entreating Jesus to do so). Again and
again she called to him.
It was clear Jesus, the man,
was having a bit of a battle with Jesus the Son of God. “I was sent for the
Children of Israel
Are we so persistent in our
faith? Or are we like those ancient
Hebrews who see with human eyes the impossibility of a situation and forget
that with God, all things are possible.
Do we entreat God as the Canaanite woman did, certain of his ability to
help us, or do we walk away dejectedly and accept a fate of the faithless? A difficult lesson is given today.
Pax
[1]
ALTRE
[2]
The picture is “The Woman of Canaan at the Feet of Christ” by Jean-Germain
Drouais, 1784
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and
is for private use only.
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