20th Sunday Year A - Homily 6

Homily 6 - 2020

One effect of the present Covid lockdown has been to give me time and inclination to look more closely at today’s Gospel passage. The first thing that struck me was the insistence with which the anonymous Canaanite woman pleaded with Jesus. She obviously loved her daughter; and that genuine love clearly motivated her request.

Her earnestness has had me pondering about my own prayers of intercession. Sometimes I wonder how deep is my personal practical concern for whom or what I am asking God to do something.

One advantage of persistent intercessory prayer is that it gives God the chance to work on me, perhaps even to change me. It can serve to remind me that God already loves, and personally and caringly loves, the one or ones I am praying for. It can lead me over time to allow God to work on me, to draw me into the infinite flow of divine love, to alert me to the opportunities I have already to help in practical ways those I pray for. Perhaps God wants me to be a channel for his love — the two of us working together, as it were. God may want to help me to grow in love.

What seems to have impressed Jesus was the woman’s faith. She was a pagan. What she believed would have been anything but orthodox. But somehow she trusted Jesus; and because she was open to Jesus, Jesus could work with her. In the Gospels, faith means trust. They could work trustingly together, each in their own way. So often, as other incidents in the Gospels indicate, that seemed to be Jesus’ preferred way of acting: “Your faith has saved you” — “Seeing their faith” — “You have great faith” — “Only have faith”.

I wonder if, whenever I pray for particular others or particular causes, I could first ponder how Jesus might be asking me to work together with him.