St Charles Borromeo
  • HOME
    • Sunday Page
    • Give
  • About
    • Mass Times
    • Bulletin & Calendar
    • Lent Schedule
    • Holy Week
    • Contact
    • Staff
    • Ministries and Committees >
      • Pastoral Council
    • Finances
    • Liturgical Ministries Schedule
  • News
  • Faith
    • Baptism
    • First Communion
    • Confirmation >
      • Confirmation Retreat 2023
      • Confirmation Sponsor
      • Confirmation Name
    • Synod 2023 >
      • Respond
      • Responses
    • Reading the Bible Rebelliously
    • The Lasallian Way
    • Spiritual Growth Challenge >
      • Lent 2023
      • Gun Violence
      • Essential Elements >
        • Essential Elements - Results
      • Personal Journey in Faith
      • Christian Practices
      • Finding LIfe's Purpose
      • Racial Reconciliation
      • Care for Creation
    • GIFT >
      • GIFT Prayer
      • Past GIFT Programs
  • Word
    • Lenten Evening Prayer
    • Voice of the Community >
      • Reflections
    • Homily
    • Children's Liturgy of the Word
  • Justice
    • Care 4 Creation >
      • Understanding Natural Gas
    • MACG Summary Report
    • Racial Justice
    • Local Resources
    • Renter's Assistance
    • Food Insecurity
    • Utilities Assistance
    • Care For The Elderly
    • St. Vincent de Paul >
      • Who We Are
      • WHAT WE DO
      • GET INVOLVED
      • GIVE
      • GET HELP >
        • FOOD HELP
        • FINANCIAL HELP
      • NEWS

Homily

O Woman, Great is Your Faith

8/19/2017

0 Comments

 
August 20, 2017
Sr Phyllis Jaszkowiak

Listen to the reflection here.

As I began to prepare these reflections my immediate reaction to the story in the gospel was, “Jesus, don’t be a jerk!”  Then I had to read it again and pray with it.  None of the commentators I read called Jesus a jerk.  They had other ways of describing what this story might mean.
Each of them alluded to the fact that Jesus, in his humanity, had to grow in his awareness of his mission.  That it was not just to the House of Israel, but to the whole world.  The actions of the woman helped Jesus to see that God’s mercy and love, that was in him, was to be given to anyone who needed it, even if they were not the same culture, country or religion as he.
 
The woman comes aggressively asking Jesus to heal her daughter.  Jesus doesn’t respond, although the apostles do with the plea, “Send her away.”  The woman then kneels down in front of Jesus, blocking his way, so he has to respond in some way.
 
His response is rather insulting, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”  She does not take the bait.  Rather, thinking only of her daughter, who needs healing, responds, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”  To which Jesus says, “O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”

The woman could have taken Jesus’ response and gotten angry, accused him of being insensitive, or yelled at him and left.  Instead, she focused on what her daughter needed and so, using a comeback, enabled Jesus to grow and grant her the healing of her daughter.
 
The woman does not trade insult for insult, but uses her humor and vulnerability to obtain the healing her daughter needed.  Most mothers also keep asking and working to obtain what their children need.
 
I think of my uncle and aunt who had a developmentally disabled child.  They worked in their state of Wisconsin, during the 1940’s and 1950’s, to get help for their daughter.  Through their efforts, not only did the state, begin to help their daughter, but also began to help all children with disabilities to receive the help they, and their families, needed.  As a result, we have all benefitted from the knowledge gained then as we continue to grow in helping those with disabilities.
 
I think, too, of the recent events in Charlottesville, and the hate that seems to be on the rise in our country.  In the August 2017 edition of Sojourners, there is an article ”Confessions of a Former White Supremacist”.  Tony McAleer, the former White Supremacist, began a group called “Life After Hate” for those who wish to no longer live out of hate, but begin to live out of love.  As McAleer says, “We try to help people reconnect with their humanity.”  To live out of love one must begin to know oneself as a person who is loved, and to know the other person as one worthy of love, and get rid of all the stereotypes about people.
 
Jesus shows us that to grow in love we need to listen, really listen, to others.  When we listen we hear new ideas, different ways of doing things, ways of understanding the world we hadn’t considered before.  Listening, if we are open, shifts our mindsets a bit, we come to know more the ways of God who made us all, and helps us to become more of the loving, kind people we are made to be.
 
Jesus listened to the woman and there was a shift inside him.  He realized, through her, that his mission was broader than just to Israel.  He more fully understood what God said through the prophet Isaiah, “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.”  Jesus also learned that true mercy has no bounds, it, too, is for everyone.
 
Jesus’ response, “O Woman great is your faith.  Let it be done for you as you wish,” was more than just granting her wish.  It was a thank you to her for helping him grow into being more loving, more Godlike.
 
We are invited, commanded almost, to listen to each other.  Listen to those of different beliefs, different cultures, different colors, different ages, different life experiences, so that we can grow in respect of, compassion for, and hospitality to everyone.
 
God, who made us all, will help us in this growth by sending us people to help us, people we want to hear, and people with whom we would rather not engage.  Let us open ourselves to others, and like Jesus, grow into becoming the people who spread love, mercy and compassion throughout our world.
 
 
Jason Byassee,  CONFESSIONS OF A FORMER WHITE SUPREMACIST,  Sojourners Magazine August 2017.  Pages 16 – 19.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

St. Charles Church  |  5310 N.E. 42nd Avenue, Portland OR 97218  |  503-281-6461  | stchas@stcharlespdx.org


  • HOME
    • Sunday Page
    • Give
  • About
    • Mass Times
    • Bulletin & Calendar
    • Lent Schedule
    • Holy Week
    • Contact
    • Staff
    • Ministries and Committees >
      • Pastoral Council
    • Finances
    • Liturgical Ministries Schedule
  • News
  • Faith
    • Baptism
    • First Communion
    • Confirmation >
      • Confirmation Retreat 2023
      • Confirmation Sponsor
      • Confirmation Name
    • Synod 2023 >
      • Respond
      • Responses
    • Reading the Bible Rebelliously
    • The Lasallian Way
    • Spiritual Growth Challenge >
      • Lent 2023
      • Gun Violence
      • Essential Elements >
        • Essential Elements - Results
      • Personal Journey in Faith
      • Christian Practices
      • Finding LIfe's Purpose
      • Racial Reconciliation
      • Care for Creation
    • GIFT >
      • GIFT Prayer
      • Past GIFT Programs
  • Word
    • Lenten Evening Prayer
    • Voice of the Community >
      • Reflections
    • Homily
    • Children's Liturgy of the Word
  • Justice
    • Care 4 Creation >
      • Understanding Natural Gas
    • MACG Summary Report
    • Racial Justice
    • Local Resources
    • Renter's Assistance
    • Food Insecurity
    • Utilities Assistance
    • Care For The Elderly
    • St. Vincent de Paul >
      • Who We Are
      • WHAT WE DO
      • GET INVOLVED
      • GIVE
      • GET HELP >
        • FOOD HELP
        • FINANCIAL HELP
      • NEWS