It is not easy for this blogger to be a good Catholic, mainly because he expects so much from those who are supposed to bring him close to God, so that he could experience holiness and peace, especially at Mass, by means of a well thought-out homily.
Today's homily was delivered by someone who told the congregation that he had been doing this for 60 years, whatever "this" meant. Even as he was walking up the center aisle toward the altar, before he said a word, this blogger felt a degree of disappointment since he was not the priest who gives thoughtful homilies. The disappointment grew when he did speak, and it continued as time went on, and his homily did not cancel out the disappointment.
It was fragmented, and he talked about things that had nothing to do with the day's Gospel reading which was about an encounter between Jesus and a Canaanite woman whose daughter was possessed by a demon. [1], [2] With poor memory, this blogger recalls that he first talked about himself, where he was born, a train he used to take, then he switched to recent events in the news, then about building bridges and walls, about relationships within the family, and most strangely, about waking up in the morning, looking into the mirror with messy hair and seeing one's reflection, asking if one sees God in oneself. How he then went from all that to the other things that this blogger had ignored and forgotten to the parable of the prodigal son was mystifying. He then ended his homily without any reference to the Canaanite woman's faith that this blogger could recall. Perhaps his wisdom of 60 years in being a religious is too great and too deep for this simpleton's mind to grasp.
So instead of paying attention to him, this simpleton took out the pew missal and read and re-read the gospel passage several times, trying to understand it himself. The parable had in it quite a bit of movement, so he captured a still image in his mind in order to study carefully who were there. First, it was Jesus, then the Canaanite woman, then Jesus' disciples. Since no actual children and dogs were present, therefore he thought that they represented figuratively the disciples and the woman and her kind respectively.
The question that came up was what role would this blogger have if he were part of the scene at the time. He was not a disciple or a Canaanite woman. Was he just an observer then? There is only one observer here, actually Three in One, and that is God, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So he concluded that he must be the woman! The thought did not sit well with him so he changed it quickly and became one of the dogs.
Being a dog turned out to be a more comfortable role for him than being the Canaanite woman with a demon-possessed daughter to deal with, then having to experience silence after asking Jesus for help and simultaneous rejection by the annoyed disciples. This blogger would be very hurt if he were the Canaanite woman, and would probably walk away quietly with tears welling up in his eyes, but in this mental re-enactment, he stayed around because he had the Canaanite woman representing him as his lawyer in an imaginary court with Jesus sitting as the Judge who said to her, "'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'" [3]
So instead of answering the woman, Jesus side-stepped her request by giving her His job description, saying in effect that He was there only to spend time with His disciples who would otherwise be lost without Him, but not to spend time with her.
The woman, being a feisty lawyer in this blogger's imagination, surprisingly turned humble and paid "homage" to Jesus, with "homage" being defined by Google as "special honor or respect shown publicly." [4] She then insisted again that Jesus help her, thinking that the homage paid would be sufficient to change Jesus' mind.
As it turned out, it did not suffice. Jesus, being human, was perhaps a bit impatient and upset with this stubborn woman who refused to give up when He said,"'It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs,'" quoted with asterisk omitted [5]. (While sitting in the pew, this blogger thought that the children were the disciples and the dogs were the non-Jewish people. He just read the notes under the Gospel cited and realized that he was wrong, that the children were all the Israelites not just the disciples. [6], [7])
This Canaanite woman turned out to be thick-skinned and the insult did not seem to bother her one bit; instead she came back with a retort, using the same analogy that Jesus used but turning it around 180 degrees to her advantage, saying, again with humility and with her continued faith that Jesus would perform a miracle, "'Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.'" [8]
This time, Jesus relented and completed a circle, meeting the half of one drawn by the Canaanite woman in the above paragraph, by Himself turning 180 degrees away from His self job description that "[He] was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" and healed the Canaanite woman's daughter.
Everyone should be like this woman, not a pest that whines and whines, but to plead with humility again and again for help, and to show that one has unwavering faith in God, so that in time, whenever that time may be, God will hear one's prayers and answer, even though the answer may not be the one desired at first, but at least God has acknowledged and answered -- that is a good thing, but being ignored forever is not since one would already be in Hell, then it would too late to be asking God for anything.
Perhaps this parable is not only for those who are non-Jewish, telling them, including this blogger, to have faith in the Son of God so that they, too, can be healed, but also for those who are Jewish, letting them know that the Son of God is God, as evidenced by His ability to heal from a distance away, and that He, God and the Holy Spirit form the Holy Trinity and was sent to save "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" and sheep that are scattered everywhere else.
[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082017.cfm
[2] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/matthew/15:21 at 21-28.
[3] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/matthew/15:21 at 24.
[4] https://www.google.com/search?q=homage&oq=homage&gs_l=psy-ab.3...2526965.2527944.0.2528252.6.6.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..6.0.0.wN3mYqAUxfY
[5] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/matthew/15:21 at 26.
[6] "[15:26] The children: the people of Israel. Dogs: see note on Mt 7:6": "Dogs and swine were Jewish terms of contempt for Gentiles." [Emphasis orignal]
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