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| Encounters with chutzpah |
The Prophet Jeremiah portrays the people’s return from captivity as a second exodus.
* [31:2–3] Jeremiah describes the exiles of the Northern Kingdom on their way home from the nations where the Assyrians had resettled them (722/721 B.C.). The favor they discover in the wilderness is the appearance of the Lord (v. 3) coming to guide them to Jerusalem. Implicit in these verses is the presentation of the people’s return from captivity as a second exodus, a unifying theme in Second Isaiah (chaps. 40–55).In the Gospel from Matthew, Jesus teaches the disciples in an encounter with a Gentile woman who has great Chutzpah.
* [15:28] As in the case of the cure of the centurion’s servant (Mt 8:10), Matthew ascribes Jesus’ granting the request to the woman’s great faith, a point not made equally explicit in the Marcan parallel (Mk 7:24–30).Beth Samson is left with some questions from the Gospel.
If you, too, find this Gospel difficult, I invite you to bring your questions to prayer. I have shared my questions below. Keep moving forward, even when the trail seems more difficult than you wanted, and invite God to be with you there.John Leonard says the text today seems to be the exact opposite of everything He teaches in every other part of the Gospels. He comments that we are not to take Jesus’ words literally, but He is speaking the exact opposite of what He means in order to make His point more clear and vivid.
Why did you ignore the woman who came to you in distress?What am I to learn from your decision to only help a person of your faith?How can I find the compassionate and loving God in this experience?
Don Schwager quotes a reflection on “The Mother of the Gentiles”, by Epiphanius the Latin (late 5th century).
And so that’s the whole point of Matthew’s gospel is that he is writing this gospel showing us that Jesus is the master Disciple and the master discipleship maker and showing us that we are not to be like the Pharisees but we are to be like Jesus who is the exact opposite of what the Pharisees were. So that’s the purpose of the book of Matthew – Jesus is making disciples.
Well you see, I believe this passage shows us that the disciples needed a lot of work. And if you read this chapter thinking there’s something wrong with Jesus or there’s something wrong with this woman and you don’t see that this passage is really about your heart, if you didn’t say when Jesus said that, “No, Lord. You said the nations would come,” or if you didn’t say, “No, Lord! There’s plenty of bread to go around,” then there’s a lot of work that Jesus Christ has to do in your heart as well. Jesus’ words to this Canaanite woman must be taken as the exact opposite thing they meant because of everything that’s going on in this chapter.
"After our Lord departed from the Jews, he came into the regions of Tyre and Sidon. He left the Jews behind and came to the Gentiles. Those whom he had left behind remained in ruin; those to whom he came obtained salvation in their alienation. And a woman came out of that territory and cried, saying to him, 'Have pity on me, O Lord, Son of David!' O great mystery! The Lord came out from the Jews, and the woman came out from her Gentile territory. He left the Jews behind, and the woman left behind idolatry and an impious lifestyle. What they had lost, she found. The one whom they had denied in the law, she professed through her faith. This woman is the mother of the Gentiles, and she knew Christ through faith. Thus on behalf of her daughter (the Gentile people) she entreated the Lord. The daughter had been led astray by idolatry and sin and was severely possessed by a demon." (excerpt from INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPELS 58)The Word Among Us Meditation on Jeremiah 31:1-7 highlights the truth that Jeremiah tried to help Israel understand. God loves them with an age-old love. It’s a love that persists despite their having turned away from him. It’s a love that promises mercy and restoration.
God’s love is perfect. It doesn’t depend on what you do or how well you do it. In fact, you might have really messed up, and he still loves you. That’s because his love is based on who you are: his child, created in his own image and likeness. Don’t worry; you don’t have to prove yourself. He won’t abandon you. You may not always feel him with you, but his faithfulness remains. He knows how your human weakness might cloud your vision of him, but in his mercy, he promises to restore you over time.A Post by Franciscan Media on the Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest, notes that Dominic’s ideal, and that of his Order, was to organically link a life with God, study, and prayer in all forms, with a ministry of salvation to people by the word of God. His ideal was expressed as “contemplata tradere”: “to pass on the fruits of contemplation” or “to speak only of God or with God.”
Dominic sensed the need for the Church to combat this heresy, and was commissioned to be part of the preaching crusade against it. He saw immediately why the preaching crusade was not succeeding: the ordinary people admired and followed the ascetical heroes of the Albigenses. Understandably, they were not impressed by the Catholic preachers who traveled with horse and retinues, stayed at the best inns and had servants. Dominic therefore, with three Cistercians, began itinerant preaching according to the gospel ideal. He continued this work for 10 years, being successful with the ordinary people but not with the leaders.Friar Jude Winkler reflects on Jeremiah’s words on mercy and Jesus action around chutzpah. Mercy requires we forgive not because the other deserves it but because the other needs it. Friar Jude advocates we adopt more chutzpah in our real prayer.
Lois Tverberg reflects that the Syrophoenician woman’s tenacious, brazen nerve won out. Jesus healed her daughter and congratulated her for her chutzpah.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, reminds us that Native lands were largely invaded by Christian colonizers. Native peoples were forced to leave their homes. Their children were taken to schools where their culture was often stripped away.
Many Christians moved the knowing of God largely into the realm of argumentative words, which narrowed the field of truly knowing and actually experiencing mercy and real communication with God in our actions and attitude.
From this marginalized position, Native peoples have a unique “bias from the bottom” that we would do well to pay attention to. We could learn from them, among other things, that land cannot be owned and Spirit cannot be divided. The Earth and all its inhabitants belong to the Creator who made them. We are called to live in harmony with each other and all created things. Creating harmony is a central idea in most indigenous religions. Pope John Paul II
Primal and indigenous spiritualities are not primarily concerned with salvation as a way to escape from a sinful world and go to heaven or the next world. Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon write, “They make it clear that we humans are not here simply as transients waiting for a ticket to somewhere else. The Earth itself is Christos, is Buddha, is Allah, is Gaia.” [2] As Jesus taught, heaven is here and now, within us (Luke 17:21).
When Pope John Paul II met with Native Americans in Phoenix, Arizona, he told them that they knew something that is taking most Catholics a long time to learn: that the Creator has always been giving and is encountered in the natural world, just as it is written in our own Scriptures (Romans 1:20). From his address:
[Your ancestors’] ways were marked by great respect for the natural resources of land and rivers, of forest and plain and desert. . . . Here they worshipped the Creator and thanked him for his gifts. In contact with the forces of nature they learned the value of prayer, of silence and fasting, of patience and courage in the face of pain and disappointment.
References
(n.d.). Jeremiah 31:31-34 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 8, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/31
(n.d.). Matthew, chapter 15 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 8, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/15
(2017, March 5). A New Look at Jesus' Words to the Canaanite Woman | First .... Retrieved August 8, 2018, from https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/a-new-look-at-jesus-words-to-the-canaanite-woman
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 8, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(n.d.). Meditations - The Word Among Us. Retrieved August 8, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/
(n.d.). Saint of the Day – Franciscan Media. Retrieved August 8, 2018, from https://www.franciscanmedia.org/source/saint-of-the-day/
(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 8, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/
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