First Reading:  Isaiah 56:1, 6-7
Second Reading: Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
Gospel: Matthew 15:21-28

I must say that I have the utmost admiration for the Canaanite woman in today's gospel.  She had one goal in wanting to meet Jesus.  Her daughter needed help.  She was sick.  She was constantly tormented by the evil one and the mother desired her healing.  And so she went to Jesus.  It was not easy for this mother to go to Jesus.  She faced many obstacles.  She was a foreigner.  She did not belong to the chosen race of God.  Rather she belonged to a race that was looked down and treated very indifferently if not with hostility by the Jewish people.  She was a Canaanite, a race that was defeated by the Jewish people as they settled in the land promised to them by God.  This can perhaps make us understand how it feels when someone with a Middle Eastern appearance comes to ask us for a favour.

This woman also faced the possibility of rejection.  Would Jesus accept me?  Would he help me seeing that I am not a Jewess?  I wonder what his reaction would be?  She also had to face shame.  At first her request was not accepted by Jesus and it must have been a very embarrassing situation for her.  The disciples got sick of her and asked Jesus to give her what she wanted so that she would leave them alone.  Yet she persisted, she had only one aim, she wanted her daughter to be healed and she was convinced that Jesus was the person who could make this possible.  And Jesus did.  Her prayers were short, desperate, worshipful, humble, rational, persevering, fervent, respectful, determined and most of all full of faith in Jesus.  Jesus could not but respond to such a prayer.  "Woman you have great faith.  Let you desire be granted." (Mt 15:28)

This reminds me of something that occurred in our town just this week.  A mother, Cheryl Jarvis was in her car when all of a sudden a big semi trailer coming from the opposite direction turned over as it was coming round a bend.  The back part of the semi trailer slumped into the car Cheryl was in.  One can only imagine the shock and the great agitation that this woman experienced.  She remained trapped inside her car in a very precarious situation for about ninety minutes.  I wondered what her thoughts were during those ninety minutes.  How did she manage to face and endure that dangerous situation.  Later on in hospital, she made this remarkable statement, "I kept my hopes alive thinking about my daughter.  I wanted to live because of my daughter."  Victor Frankl an eminent Jewish psychologist used to say that when you have a goal in life that you are determined to pursue and achieve you will go through anything in order to reach it.  He spoke from his experience in the Auswitz concentration camp.

We can learn so much from all this.  We are also beset by so many things that cause us uncertainty and deep concern.  Our first reaction would be that we can cope with all of this and if we do it long enough then the problem or the difficulty would go away and we continue to live our lives in tranquillity.  However, we all know that very often this does not work.  It takes only a little episode or a chance meeting with the person who has caused us this anxiety for the whole situation to flare up again with incredible emotional upset.

Then we might try to seek help from our friends and from professional people.  This might help.  However, as christian people we have another person that we can go to.  Jesus is the person who can affirm us once again in who we are and make us realise our full potential.  There is absolutely nothing that we cannot face and overcome with Jesus' help and healing.  There is however, one condition "Woman you have great faith".  Jesus asks to have faith in him.

What is faith?  What is Jesus talking about when he talks about faith?  What is he looking for from us in practical terms.  Faith does not consist in knowing all the catechism by heart.  That might help.  We do not have faith because we always passed very well our exams in religious matters.  This is a very good thing to achieve.  Faith is not realised simply because I was born and raised in a catholic family.  This can be of great assistance and provides us with many practical means to have faith.  However, in reality faith means that we believe and stand on the promises that Jesus makes.  Faith embraces the attitude that if Jesus said it then it must be true and I will hold on to the truth because Jesus said it.

Jesus made a lot of promises to you and to me.  "I will never leave you orphan". "Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest." "Do not let your hearts be troubled.  You trust in God, trust also in me." (Jn 14:1)  "In all truth I tell you whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works." (Jn 14:27) "I am the resurrection.  Anyone who believes in me, even though that person dies, will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." (Jn 11:25)

These are only a few of the promises that Jesus made.  We are in safe hands.  In our moments of joy and happiness let us always praise our God for so many marvellous gifts that He has given to each one of us.  In our moments of heaviness and confusion let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, holding steadfastly to his promise that He is at our side with his healing presence.  Even in our desperate state, everything is not lost.  Let us keep reaching out to the outstretching hands of Jesus who is always ready and prepared to take us out of our mud and heaviness.  As believers in Jesus Christ this is what keeps us going.  This is what fuels our determination to give life where there is death, to bring hope where there is despair and to provide light where there is darkness.

God bless.

Bishop Joe Grech