Holy Impatience
the Canaanite woman
Dear Saints,
First, this week's announcements:
It looks like our Sunday 11:00am Mass might have to be held inside this week, but I will send out a text/email Sunday morning with the final word. If you haven't been receiving these texts/emails, let me know.
Our weekend Masses are: Saturday 5:15pm in the church; Sunday at 7:30am and 9:00am in the church; Sunday at 9:00am at Walmart; and Sunday at 11:00am (hopefully) outside.
Please be in touch with me if you need anything at all, or with any questions or concerns.
Although true of every scene in scripture, it is crucially important that we take this weekend's Gospel passage in its context. It won't surprise you that we find, in word and deed, a thoroughly Jewish Jesus.
With that in mind I want to recommend a beautiful, relatively new, series: The Chosen is a compelling drama that, I believe, makes Christ in his context accessible and understandable. Check out the first episode below. I'm not ashamed to say it had me in tears.
The Chosen, Episode 1
This weekend, we hear Jesus leverage the language of his day to deny a Canaanite woman's request that he heal her daughter. He says, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."
We might choose to be offended that Jesus makes use of this Gentile-as-dog reference, but that would be to miss the point.
The reality is that Jesus' mission is to Israel, and he has a laser-like focus on the fact. But Jesus is no separatist. God will restore his entire world through a renewed Israel, gathered around Jesus the Messiah and made to be a light to the nations.
That was the plan, at least. Just don't tell the Canaanite woman. Her daughter needs help now. She won't wait.
Hers is the kind of faith that the Gospels laud and honor, a faith by which someone entrusts themselves and their cause totally to Jesus and eagerly waits on his word.
The Canaanite woman was ahead of her time, grasping for the Good News before it went out to the wider world. How much more so should we, Gentiles gathered as the new Israel, foster a holy impatience to bring about God's purposes and live for his blessing.
If we want to see God's work take hold in the world - both in our lives and further afield - we need to persevere in prayer, begging Jesus for what we need and entrusting ourselves to him.
I love you, my friends. I look forward to seeing you very soon.
Christ's Peace,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
Preparing for Mass?
Check out this weekend's readings:
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Christ and the Canaanite Woman
Ludovico Carracci, 1594-95