Sunday, August 17, 2008

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 56: 1, 6-7
We do not worship the Christian God, but God. She is the creator of all peoples, not just those that believe in him. She hears and calls out to everyone. He loves everyone. We must always remember that we are not an exclusive tribe, but simply messengers of the one family of the one God.

Matthew 15: 21-28
How should we understand Jesus calling the Canaanite woman a dog? Most would dismiss it as a test of her faith: "He didn't really mean it." I say that he meant every word he spoke, testimony from his own lips to the fullness of his humanity. Jesus chose to be one of us, with all our tribal tendencies. It is not pretty to us, not what we expect of our God, but God's will does not follow our expectations or desires. He has her own plan and we should expect it to be confounding most of the time. Our notions of imperfection may be anything but to the author of perfection itself.