20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 16th August, 2020

Gospel:  Matthew 15:21-28
Jesus left Genenesaret and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Then out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, ‘Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.’ But he answered her not a word. And his disciples went and pleaded with him. ‘Give her what she wants,’ they said ‘because she is shouting after us.’ He said in reply, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel’. But the woman had come up and was kneeling at his feet. ‘Lord,’ she said ‘help me.’ He replied, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs’. She retorted, ‘Ah yes, sir; but even house-dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table’. Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.’ And from that moment her daughter was well again.

The Gospel of the Lord.    

Fr Donal Neary, S.J
Gospel Reflections for the Year of Matthew
www.messenger.ie

Fighting for her child

She was a woman like many. She would fight for her child, so she took on Jesus, the best known religious figure around. Like someone taking on the minister for health or children over a medical card for a chronically ill child, and not letting them off the hook. Jesus was testing her. He saw faith, but he wanted ev­eryone else to see it. So he told her she didn’t fit into the local re­ligious sphere because she was foreigner, like an asylum seeker or a refugee. She knew she fitted into the heart of Jesus simply because she was the mother of a sick child and believed he could help.

Even if he would cure everyone, maybe he would come back to her at the end. Jesus went further – he cured her child and praised her faith.

She is another of the unnamed ones of the gospel. Like the woman of Samaria, the rich young man, the thief on Calvary – she is herself, and she is all of us. She is everyone, man and woman, of faith.

Faith in a surprising God who, in Jesus, his Son, never says no to goodness. Faith that keeps us energetic and alive, not tired, in soul as well as body.

Remember your feeling of gratitude for the children of your family.
Lord, I believe.
Strengthen my faith. 

Gospel and Gosple Reflection are taken from  Mass Readings and Sunday Homily - Catholicireland.net.