The Canaanite Woman and Jesus

On Wednesday I gave the reflection during our noon Liturgy of the Word with Distribution of Communion. The gospel of the day was Matthew's version of the story of the Canaanite woman who asked Jesus to cure her child. In the course of my research for writing the reflection I came across two wonderful reflection pieces. You should read them here and here.

Money quote from the first one:

"Well, I love that story about this woman. I can see this woman coming up to Jesus and saying, “Heal my child.” And Jesus gives her the silent treatment. How often do we get silence from God. But silence is not to intimidate us.

And so she says again, “Jesus, please heal my child.” Jesus replies, “I am busy healing the Jews first. The Greeks come later.” She said, “I need help now.” She was not intimidated by the apparent busyness of Jesus.

She again persisted, “Please, heal my child.” Jesus replied, “Woman, you are like a yelping puppy. Yelp. Yelp. Yelp. Yelp. Yelp. You are like a yelping puppy under my table.”

The woman laughed and said, “Well, you feed a yelping dog and you shut him up. How about me?”

Jesus said, “Great is your faith. Your daughter is healed.”

That is the way we ought to pray."

And from the second one:

"Matthew does not give us any indication of whether Jesus smiled at her word play and her cunning, or whether he accorded her the ancient Palestinian equivalent of, "You go, girl!" We don’t know what he felt at losing an argument. What’s clear is that he recognized truth when he heard it and saw a gentile ready to be part of a flock much bigger than the one he had been sent to. "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted."

The Canaanite woman’s persistence not only made her daughter whole; it also showed Jesus the larger world he had come to listen to and heal."