17/08/2008 - 20th. Sunday Ordinary
Time - Year A
1st. Reading Is. 56,1.6-7 Ps 66 2nd Reading Rom 11,13-15.29-32 Gospel
Mt 15,21-28
"I believe in the Holy Spirit". Up to now we have confessed our faith
in the Father and in Jesus, Son of God; now we turn to the Holy Spirit of the
Father and of the Son to trust our life to Him. Who is the Holy Spirit? The
word 'spirit' means 'breath', that is, the strength that gives life to man from
within and is breathed out, and made visible in the movement it creates and
the warmth it produces. If we, then, use 'Spirit' with a capital S, we want
to say that 'Breath' that comes out from God to touch our lives, change them
and prepare them to respond to the loving actions of the Father and the Son.
Someone compared this to the light or the warmth of the sun: God reaches man
and all creation with the light and the warmth of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit
of God is Holy. This seems so obvious, but do we know what it means? This is
the word used by the Holy Scriptures to explain the most appropriate character
of the God of Israel. He shows his holiness in loving his people who has always
been unfaithful, uncorrectable, and unable to obey. To be holy, then, is equal
to not being conditioned from outside: as if God is saying to his people: "you
rebel against me? I love you all the same because I am good"! "You
don't accept me? I continue to love you"! "You blame me and curse
me? I bless you and make sure you enjoy my presence and my salvation" The
Spirit of God is Holy. He is a Spirit that communicates holiness even to us,
when we are open to His action, when we welcome Him within us and let our feelings
and emotions, our mind and will to follow his inspirations. To believe in the
Holy Spirit means that we want Him to move us from within so that we love those
who don't love us, we bless those who curse us, and thus we are happy because
of the love we receive from God even though the others are ungrateful! "I
believe in the Holy Spirit", is a great gift and a commitment, source of
love and everlasting joy!
Today the Lord wants to tell us that He doesn't think only of his people, but
of all peoples. Everybody is dear to his heart. He wants all to be happy! The
people of Israel was chosen to be his people that prepares the way for all peoples
to receive God's love and praise. The small people of God have an important
role for all humanity: to prepare the way for the Savior of all and to prepare
the "house" where all can meet with God.
St. Paul shows us that unfortunately the people of Israel rejected the Savior
and sentenced Jesus to death that became source of mercy for the entire world.
He hopes that one-day Israel, seeing how God, thanks to the sacrificial act
of Jesus, love all, returns and accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior. Hence the
mercy of the Father reaches all men and women.
Jesus meeting with the Kananean woman helps us understands how much God wants
to save all, all peoples. He is in the surroundings of Tire and Sidon, pagan
cities out of Palestine. He went there to be alone with his disciples without
being disturbed by the many coming and going of people wanting him to do miracles.
But his fame reached also these places and its because of this a woman comes
to him and start shouting her prayer. It's a desperate prayer: no one can give
her an answer because no one is able to overcome the power of the devil possessing
her daughter. Unfortunately the devil asks no permission from any body, and
when he wants to tie up with him someone, he just do it. There are families,
individuals, spiritually weak by grave sins, which don't pray and have no trust
in God. There are those who inherited their ancestors' obedience to Satan or
have wealth and goods, or own property fruit of injustices or fraud: of these
the evil one, man's enemy, boast of right.
Jesus gives no answer to the woman. It's the disciples that, tired of her, propose
to their Master and Lord to answer her. It seemed to Jesus that it was not the
case to listen to someone who turns to him to satisfy a need without believing
that he is the Savior sent by God though. But then, when the woman gets close
to him, he saw that her prayer was accompanied by a deep humility. In fact she
didn't give up even when Jesus said to her that bread is a gift for the children
and not for dogs! Jesus' answer shows the terminology, which was commonly used
by the Jews to explain the pagans. The woman answers back saying that the dogs
have owners, meaning, that she accepts the fact that the Jews have precedence
in God's heart, but that she is also sure that this doesn't mean exclusivity!
From her humility Jesus could see her great faith, and the devil leaves her
daughter. The devil cannot take a humble person! This is to fulfil the prophecy:
"Foreigners that adhere to the Lord…to be his servants….will be blessed
with joy in my house".