OMELIE / Omelie EN

16 ago 2026

16 August 2026 – 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

16 August 2026 – 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

1st reading: Is 56:1, 6–7; Psalm 66; 2nd reading: Rom 11:13–15, 29–32; Gospel: Mt 15:21–28

The relationship between Jews and non-Jews has always been problematic, both before and after the coming of Jesus, and it still is today! How does God the Father view it? This is the fundamental question. The Jews have always regarded themselves as the chosen people. This is true, but why did God choose them and always favour them, to the extent of continually renewing covenants with them, even after periods when they had betrayed him? The answer is interesting, and it is the subject that the prophets – and only the prophets – have addressed. God chose a people and enriched them with wisdom and with wise and holy laws, so that they might be an example and a source of attraction for all other peoples. God loves all his creatures; he loves all people, all the children of Adam. And the children of Abraham have an important mission for everyone else. When they forget this, they find themselves far from their God.

Today’s reading from the prophet Isaiah affirms precisely this. It says: ‘The foreigners who have joined the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants… I will fill them with joy in my house of prayer… My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples’. God awaits the foreigners and all nations: who will lead them to him? It will be the Jews themselves, through their holy lives, who will draw all others to obey the wisdom of the one God capable of loving and showing mercy to all people. If the lives of the Jews are not attractive, they lose the purpose of their existence.

Building on this revelation, Saint Paul expresses his great suffering. And this is it: he sees the people of his own nation—a people chosen by God—rejecting the one Saviour whom the Father sent for them too. They do not welcome Jesus, the only one who can give true and full life, eternal life, the capacity to forgive and to grow to the fullness of love. The Apostle sees that the Gentiles surpass the Jews in their obedience to God. The Gentiles have converted and continue to convert to faith in Jesus, contemplating his death on the cross, brought about by the Jews themselves. Who knows whether now, seeing the mercy God has shown to the Gentiles and the beauty of their lives, the Jews might not become envious and convert to welcome Jesus and be saved themselves?

And the apostle goes on to observe that the rejection of the Saviour makes the Jews greater sinners than the pagans who followed all the vices of their idols. Now both are sinners, and so both may experience the beauty and goodness of the Father’s mercy. Being sinners and receiving mercy makes them equal, and they may be regarded as one people who will be able to give glory to the Father. ‘Their rejection has brought about the reconciliation of the world’: how truly marvellous is God’s wisdom and His judgements! The Kingdom of Heaven is one, like the sheepfold tended by the one Shepherd. Those who unite themselves with the King of God’s Kingdom and those who allow themselves to be guided by the Shepherd become one reality; there is no longer any division.

St Paul, in describing this situation, draws on the example of Jesus. He showed mercy to the Canaanite woman, that is, a pagan. He resisted her request for a long time, for at least two reasons: he did not want his disciples to be scandalised, as they were not yet ready to change their attitude towards pagans. Furthermore, Jesus intended to test whether the woman’s request was motivated by a firm and proven faith in him. She addressed him with a messianic title, ‘Son of David’, but above all she called him ‘Lord’ not once, but three times. He himself saw this, and his disciples too were able to see a faith that stood the test, and was indeed very humble: she accepted being compared to dogs – as it was customary for Jews to call pagans – even though Jesus used the affectionate term ‘little dogs’.

When a person believes in Jesus, and welcomes the One whom the Father has sent, and shows love for him, can you still call them a pagan or a foreigner? Indeed, for Jesus, that woman’s faith was nothing short of exemplary: everyone else could learn from her, even his own disciples. The Lord even calls her ‘Woman’, just as he called his Mother! ‘Woman’ means that she is a help to him, like Eve beside Adam, in discovering what God’s will is. For God indeed wants even we Gentiles to be loved and to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven. Seeing the Canaanite woman’s faith, Jesus not only granted her request by healing her daughter from demonic possession, but also allowed everyone to see that other peoples too are pleasing to the Father. Through Jesus, Jews and Gentiles become one people, one kingdom of God, and can live in mutual communion as true brothers and sisters.