20th Sunday Ordinary Time – Year A
Fr. Mark Gatto
Have you ever felt rejected by the church? Why did you feel rejected?
At times divorced Catholics might feel that way. LGBQ and Transgender Catholics might feel that way. Single parents may feel that way. Perhaps if you are a Catholic who is struggling with some teaching of the church. Some who today are choosing MAID may feel rejected by the church. Maybe just a bad experience with a priest made you feel that way. Sometimes young people when they question things and get a judgemental response from parents or teachers.
As a pastor of a Catholic parish it is my desire that no one would ever feel rejected or sent away by the church through our parish.
We saw in the Gospel today a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus looking for help. The disciples speak to Jesus and say, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting after us.” They want to send her away as she is not one of them. Canaanites were considered heretics, not belonging to the people of Israel.
Initially even Jesus does not want to receive her, he says, “I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” In a sense we are seeing the vision of the early church expanding, to become broader in terms of how the church responds to people seen as outsiders. There is a growth in understanding. The church is becoming more universal right before our eyes within the gospels.
The Canaanite woman calls out, “Lord, help me.” Today in our parish, I see so many people of different ages, cultures, backgrounds who simply come off the street and are asking us for help. Many just looking for a community and place to be connected to God. They have faith like that Canaanite woman and hunger for the help of Jesus.
We Catholics, as disciples of Jesus, as priests, sometimes send people away. By our attitudes, when we are too narrow, fundamentalist, elitist, acting as though we are extra pure. In the way we speak, in the way we act, in the way we treat those who seem to be on the outside like the Canaanite woman. Each of us needs a conversion to broaden our vision. Who are we sending away?
If you were praying with this passage, you could imagine yourself in the place of the disciples or in the place of the Canaanite woman. If you imagine yourself in the place of the disciples, as we see them wanting to send the Canaanite woman away, we need to do a self examination. Who are the people that we might be sending away without even realizing it? Is there any person or groups of people that you wish to send away as the disciples did in this gospel? We need some honest self reflection.
If you imagine yourself in the place of the Canaanite woman, we see her faith that keeps her pursuing Jesus despite the experience of rejection. In what ways have you experienced being rejected by the church. Like the Canaanite woman do not let anyone send you away. With faith and perseverance you will be received by Jesus.
Praying honestly with a gospel passage like this should challenge your vision in one way or another. At times it might make us uncomfortable.