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| Robin Williams, 1951-2014. |
(Twentieth Sunday of the Year (A): This homily was given on
August 17, 2014 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twentieth Sunday 2014]
“And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.”
That was the final result of an encounter that Jesus had with
a Canaanite woman one day during his earthly ministry. We just heard about that encounter in today’s
gospel story from Matthew 15.
The result is clear—crystal clear—because it’s explicitly
stated.
But there were a number of decisions this Canaanite woman made along the way which led to the final
result. Those decisions are probably not
so clear to us simply because they’re not explicitly listed in the text.
But they are there!
The reason I mention this in my homily today is because the final
result—the deliverance of this woman’s daughter from the demon who was
tormenting her—would not have occurred if
these decisions had NOT been made!
Leave out one of them—any one of them—and her prayer for her
daughter would NOT have been answered.
That means the last line of the story would not be the line
I read to you a few moments ago. The
last line of the story would be, “And the woman’s daughter was not healed, but she continued to be troubled
by this terrible demon.”
Or something along those lines.
So what were the decisions this woman made which resulted in
her daughter’s deliverance and healing?
Well, first of all, she made the decision to believe that Jesus could help her. And she probably made that decision because
she had already made the prior decision to
believe the things that people had told her about our Lord!
How did this woman know that Jesus had the power to work
miracles? Well, in all likelihood it was
because people she was acquainted with—her relatives and friends perhaps—had
witnessed to her, and had shared with her how Jesus had healed and delivered
lots of other people in lots of other places.
She then made the decision to seek Jesus out: to pursue him and to find him. It wasn’t enough to make the decision to
believe that he could do something to help her and her daughter; she also had
to make the decision to actually go to him to get the help she required!
Then she needed to make the decision to open her mouth and call out to our Lord. Had she remained silent, in all likelihood,
Jesus would have just continued to walk by and she might never have seen him
again.
Then when he didn’t respond to her immediately, she had to
decide to disregard his silence (as well
as his subsequent remark about being sent only to the Jewish people and not to
Gentiles like her).
After that she had to make the decision to continue to call out to our Lord.
At the same time she had to decide to disregard the annoyed (and rather insensitive) disciples who just
wanted her to go away.
Notice that Jesus never told her to go away.
And she didn’t.
Rather, she kept on making the right decisions!
She obviously discerned that Jesus was more than just a
descendant of King David, because we’re told that at that point “she came and
did him homage” and she called him “Lord.”
She obviously decided that
he was worthy of her worship. But
even at that point in the encounter she was tested when Jesus responded to her
homage with his famous remark, “It is not right to take the food of the
children and throw it to the dogs.”
Some Scripture scholars insist that Jesus made this remark to
the woman in a lighthearted way and with a smile on his face, with the
intention of bringing her to a deeper level of faith.
That explanation actually does make a lot of sense,
especially since the Greek word for dogs that’s used here means “pet dogs” and
not “wild street dogs” (and it was the wild street dogs that were looked upon
with disdain in ancient Israel). But
even so, there are times when you can say things like this to another person in
a lighthearted way, and the person will still get offended and upset! Just because you MAKE a remark in a
lighthearted way doesn’t mean that the remark WILL BE RECEIVED in a
lighthearted way!
This means that the Canaanite woman had to decide at that precise
moment to disregard any negative emotions
she might have been feeling toward Jesus after our Lord spoke these words to
her!
She had to put those out of her mind; she had to banish them
from her heart. Then she had to decide to humble herself, and not give up, and
express her faith one more time in the cleverest way she could: “Yes, Lord, but
even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”
And THEN—FINALLY!—the Lord answered her prayer and said yes
to her request.
Now I’m not sure if you were counting, but the fact of the
matter is I just shared with you about a dozen decisions this woman made which
were absolutely necessary for her to make in order to get her daughter healed.
The application of all this to us should be obvious:
When God doesn’t do what we think he should do, in the
precise way and at the precise time that we think he should do it; when God
doesn’t answer our prayers with an immediate “yes”; when things continue to go
wrong even when we’re praying and trying to do everything right—it’s easy to
throw in the towel (so to speak) and give up.
At those moments it would be good for us to remember this
Canaanite woman—and to imitate her decisions:
Her decision to believe that Jesus could
help her;
Her decision to believe the incredible
things that others had told her about Jesus;
Her decision to seek Jesus out—to pursue
him;
Her decision to call out to him, even though
she initially experienced only silence in return;
Her decision to continue calling out to the
Lord;
Her decision to disregard the discouraging
voices of some of the people around her (who should have been encouraging her!);
Her decision to acknowledge the Lordship of
Christ; her decision to humble herself; and her decision to continue to express
her faith as well as she could!
I can’t helped but think that Robin Williams (God rest his
soul) would have dealt with his trial very differently if he had imitated this Canaanite
woman in his struggle with depression.
Now let’s be clear about it, persevering faith doesn’t necessarily
prevent a person from becoming clinically depressed. (I’m sure we’ve all known people of deep
faith who have suffered with depression.)
But having a persevering does affect how a person deals with
the situation.
That’s because persevering faith gives a person a perspective
on life that no therapy or medication can give (although very often therapy and
medication are also necessary to deal with the problem).
I was reminded of this when I read an article a few days ago
on the Lifeteen website—an article that I shared with the teenagers at youth
group this past Thursday. It was written
by a Catholic young man named Thomas Grant, who has struggled with depression
for many years. In the article Thomas
said that a key moment for him in overcoming his silence about what he was
going through occurred when he had a conversation with a priest who helped him
to understand that (and here I quote Thomas): “I am not depression. I am the
son of the King. Even in darkness, he
carries me.”
That’s the bigger perspective that faith in Jesus Christ gives
to a person. And that’s why Thomas gives
this advice to other young people at the end of his article:
If you struggle with depression, anxiety, or thoughts of self-harm or
suicide, talk to an adult you can trust that is close to you. Speak with your
youth minister, your parents, your priest. They can help steer you in the right
directions. It may involve counseling and that’s okay. It may involve some
lifestyle changes and that is okay. Jesus walks with us through all of that. Even
in our darkest moments, Christ is there, calling us out of silence and into
life.
You deserve that. Never let anyone tell you any differently. You were made for life.
You deserve that. Never let anyone tell you any differently. You were made for life.
Whether he realizes it or not, Thomas Grant is dealing
successfully with his depression because
he is imitating the Canaanite woman in her persevering and unwavering faith.
May God help all of us to do the same thing and follow the example
of this great woman—even if we’re blessed to be perfectly healthy at the
present time.