OMELIE / Omelie EN

20 ago 2023

20/08/2023 - 20th Sunday of the O.T. - Year A

20/08/2023 - 20th Sunday of the O.T. - Year A

1st reading Is 56,1.6-7 from Psalm 66 2nd reading Rom 11,13-15.29-32 Gospel Mt 15,21-28

Today the Lord wants to tell us that he does not think only of his people, but of all peoples. He cares for all people: he would like to see them all filled with joy. The people of Israel have been chosen as his people to prepare the ground of love for God and his praise for all peoples. God's little people perform a great service for all mankind: they prepare the way for the Saviour of all and prepare the 'house' where all can meet him: 'My temple shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples'!

Unfortunately, says St. Paul, the people of Israel rejected the Saviour: in this way they brought about the death of Jesus, which was a source of mercy for the whole world. He hopes that Israel will repent, seeing how God, through Jesus' sacrifice, loves everyone, and will also begin to accept the Lord and Saviour. Then the mercy of the Father will truly envelop all men.

That God wants to save everyone, all peoples, Jesus also lets us understand this clearly in his encounter with the Canaanite woman. He is in the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, pagan cities outside Palestine. He went there so that he could be alone with his disciples, without the constant coming and going of people who sought him out especially for miracles. But his fame has already reached these places, and that is why a woman, in his presence, cries out her request. It is a heartfelt, almost desperate request: she knows that no one can solve her problem, because no one has the ability to overcome the nefarious power of the devil that possesses her daughter.

Unfortunately, we realise that the devil does not ask permission from anyone, and when he can bind a person to himself, he does so: there are, unfortunately, families and people who are spiritually completely defenceless, recovering from great sins, lacking in prayer and lacking trust in God. There are people who live a life that is the result of choices made in obedience to Satan, perhaps by their parents or ancestors, or live using money or property that is the result of injustice or fraud: over those properties or life choices the Evil One, shameless enemy of man, has rights.

Jesus does not respond to that woman. It is the disciples who, tired of hearing her, propose to their Master and Lord to hear her out. To Jesus, it does not seem appropriate to listen to a person who only turns to him for a need, without believing that he is the saviour sent by God. However, when that woman is near, he sees that her request is accompanied by great humility. In fact, she does not resent the fact that Jesus tells her that bread is a gift for children, not for little dogs.

Jesus must have done it on purpose to use an offensive term commonly used by Jews to designate pagans. The woman is not offended, but rather, she adds to her prayer: just as the little dogs have masters to look after them, so she accepts that the Jews take precedence in God's heart, but she is sure that they only have precedence, not exclusivity! The little dogs enjoy the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters' children

From this humility Jesus deduces the greatness of the woman's faith. And the devil is forced to abandon his daughter. For the devil cannot endure humility, for he is chronically proud.

Humility is pleasing to God, being the defining characteristic of the Son of God. For he proposes to us all to imitate him not in faith and charity, not in performing miracles or telling parables, but in meekness and humility. Thus the prophecy is fulfilled: 'The strangers, who have adhered to the Lord ... to be his servants, ... I will fill them with joy in my house of prayer'. This woman, who acts as the Lord's servant, is filled with joy because of the Word of Jesus and the fruit of deliverance that flows from it.