The Transformer was Transformed

"Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
(Mt 15:22)

The Transformer was transformed!
August 14, 2011, 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 Romans 11:13-15, 29-32 Matthew 15:21-28

1st reading: about foreigners

Thus says the Lord God: Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed. The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord God, ministering to him, loving the name of the Lord God, and becoming his servants—all who keep the Sabbath free of profanation and hold to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Glory to you, Lord.

The gospel: about a Canaanite woman -- a foreigner

At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But Jesus didn’t say a word. The disciples urged Him to send her away. ”Tell her to get going,” they said, “for she is bothering us to death.”Then Jesus, trying to put her off, said to the woman, “I have come only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” But the woman approached Jesus again, did Him homage and pleaded, “Lord, help me.” He replied, “It’s is not right to take food that belongs to the children, and toss it to the dogs.” But she responded, “Lord, just remember that dogs eat the scraps that fall from their masters’ table.” Her words took Jesus by surprise, and He replied, “O woman, great is your faith! What you want will be done for you.”And the woman’s daughter was healed at that moment.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
A timely prayer

Yesterday, August 13, marked the 50th anniversary of the day when the Communists began building the infamous Berlin Wall in 1961. The wall divided the city into Capitalist West and Communist East, and it was meant to keep West Berliners out of East Berlin, and vice versa. The wall was 10 ft. wide, 15 ft. tall, and it ran through the heart of city for 28 miles. It was built not so much by brick but by xenophobia: fear of the foreigner. (The foreigners were capitalists.) Communist party chief Erich Honecker vowed that the wall would stand for a 100 years; it lasted for only 28. In one historic moment, at the stroke of midnight on Nov. 9, 1989, mobs with hammers and chisels scaled the wall, and it came crumbling down. The opening prayer for this 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time is indeed timely: “Oh Lord, may the walls which prejudice raises between us crumble beneath the shadow of Your outstretched arm.”

"The foreigner” – a uniting theme

The theme of “foreigner” unites the first and Gospel readings. In the first, the Lord promises that the foreigner (the Gentile), who joins himself to the Lord and loves His holy name, will be welcomed to His holy mountain, the Temple in Jerusalem, for His house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. In the Gospel, the foreigner is a Canaanite woman – a non-Jew – a Gentile.

A gutsy repartee to a knee-jerk reaction

When Jesus withdraws to the region of Tyre and Sidon, a Canaanite woman begged Him to cure her daughter tormented by a demon. It took courage for a Gentile (and a woman) to ask a Jewish man for help. At first Jesus didn’t respond to her. But she wasn’t going to be put off. Jesus, seemingly rude and insensitive, told her it wasn’t right to take food that belongs to the children, and toss it to the `dogs.‘ That Jesus would call the Gentile Canaanite woman a dog might sound a bit disturbing, but He was simply echoing what He had heard all His life. It was a knee-jerk reaction on his part. It was the byproduct of His cultural and religious upbringing. After all, Moses had commanded the Israelites to destroy Hittites, Amorites and Canaanites because they worshipped false gods. (Deut 20:16-18)

Refusing to be crushed by being called a dog by Jesus, the Canaanite woman responded with a gutsy repartee: “Call me dog, if you want, but just remember dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”The crumb she asked for was the cure of her daughter. Her sharp response took Jesus by surprise. What’s more, it overwhelmed Him, and He exclaimed: “Woman, you have great faith! Be it done for you as you asked.” At that moment her daughter was cured.

The Transformer is transformed

The Canaanite woman had changed the very direction of Jesus’ mission: it was no longer limited to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” It no longer pointed narrow-mindedly only to fellow-Jews; it now reached out to Gentiles as well. The Canaanite woman had `turned the tables’ on Jesus: He who usually transformed others was now the one who was transformed! He was transformed by a doggedly persistent, in-your-face woman, who demanded that Jesus sees her not as a despised Gentile dog but as a human being and as a mother instinctively pleading for a sick child.

An incredible twist of fate

Jews in Jesus’ day called Gentiles dogs. Two thousand years later, by an incredible twist of fate, Gentiles would be calling Jews dogs. We remember (because we cannot forget) that in the first half of the 20th century German and Polish Nazis (Gentiles) looked on Jews as dogs. That made it physically, psychologically and emotionally possible for Nazis Gentiles to jam six million Jews into railroad cars and send them off to concentration camps in Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald. There Nazi Gentiles ruthlessly suffocated Jewish `dogs’ in gas chambers and reduced them to ashes in crematories. Animal lovers among themselves say, “If the Nazis would have known how to treat dogs, they would have known how to treat Jews! “

An incredible letter

A letter addressed to that audacious Canaanite woman, who had managed to `turn the tables’ and transform the Transformer, reads as follows:

Dear lady,
We have never heard anyone talk to Rabbi Jesus the way you did! How dare you, a foreigner (and a female besides) speak that way to One who
belongs to the House of Israel! On second thought, dear woman, it was really Jesus who was the foreigner! He had wandered off into your home-turf of Tyre and Sidon! What was He doing there? You would tell Him what He was doing there: you begged Him saying, "Have mercy on me, Son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon."

You kept running after Rabbi Jesus and His gang. This gang told Him to tell you to “Get lost!” He ignored them, but He ignored you as well. Some of us who know Rabbi Jesus (a rather nice guy) found His silence even more disturbing than your painful pleading. When at last He did speak, things got worse. He told you that He “was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." At that point, had I been you, Canaanite woman, I would have gotten very angry. "Sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, huh! Then what in the hell are you doing in Tyre? Need a road map, Omniscient Son of God?" But you, Canaanite woman, though very anxious about your daughter, kept your cool. You, gentle and Gentile woman, standing in the midst of Jewish males who want you to “get lost” even on your own home-turf -- you are so `out of place!’ But you are exactly where your daughter needs you to be. In her behalf you cry out to Rabbi Jesus: "Have mercy on me, Son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon." By your constant entreaty you, a Gentile and a female, changed the mind of a Jesus, a Jew and a male. He finally gives in, and even exclaims, “Oh
woman, your faith is great! I grant what you ask.”

Uneducated Gentile woman, you taught the educated Jewish Rabbi. You and your fierce need taught God's own Son Himself to see that His mission generously included many more than just the ”lost sheep of the House of Israel.”He who had been culturally and religiously conditioned not to look for anything worthwhile in a person like you
(Gentile and female) – He found great faith in you, and that transformed Him.
Signed: a secret admirer

Conclusion
Following the example of her Master

Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, is a well-known theologian. She is also the nemesis of a male-driven Church, just at the Canaanite woman was a nemesis of Rabbi Jesus’ gang. Sr. Joan says her Church “is riddled with inconsistencies, is closed to a discussion about those inconsistencies and is sympathetic only to `invisible women.’ By `invisible women’ she means those who are contented to be neither heard nor seen, but simply go along with what the men want. By `visible women’ she would point to that very `in-your-face’ Canaanite woman in today’s gospel, who refused to `get lost,’ but demanded to be heard and seen.

How dare you, Sr. Joan (a foreigner and female) feel and speak that way about your Church? She probably would respond: “I feel and speak that way I do because I believe that if Jesus, the Transformer, is capable of being transformed by the Canaanite woman, then His Church should follow the example of her Master.”