Dear Saints,

Today’s Gospel - in which Jesus starts by ignoring a helpless Canaanite woman, continues by seemingly insulting her, and concludes by healing her daughter - offers us a great opportunity to reflect on the importance of humility and persistence in prayer. Jesus wasn’t exactly free with compliments about people’s faith: when his closest friends quite reasonably panicked in the face of imminent demise by hurricane, for example, he rebuked them for their unbelief. He did the same thing to the bewildered disciples on the road to Emmaus and doubting Thomas. Yet to this second-class citizen, he exclaims “O woman, great is your faith!” and grants her heart’s greatest desire.

What had to happen for her to get to the point that the Lord himself praises her? Nothing easy, that’s for sure. She had to hold on in the face of neglect, oppositional group-think, attempted censorship, apparent prejudice, and rejection. And hold on she did. She was, you might say, dogged in her singular focus: her child needed healing, and Jesus was the only one with the power to do it. With so much on the line, she refused to be swayed or silenced. We should demonstrate similar perseverance in our own prayer lives. We too have much on the line every single day; like this woman, we should never, never, never give up begging Jesus to order our hearts and lives to himself. We should never let anything or anyone deter us from pursuing friendship with the one who can - and will - restore all things.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ