Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Memory of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a priest who died as a martyr for love. He accepted death in the concentration camp of Auschwitz to save the life of another man.
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Homily
Besides the flight to Egypt and the passage proposed to us this Sunday, the Gospels do not recount any journeys taken by Jesus outside of Palestine. Here, Matthew writes that Jesus "went away" from the region of Galilee surrounding the lake of Gennesaret and travelled towards Tyre and Sidon (in present-day Lebanon), two ancient Phoenician maritime and mercantile cities that were rich and flourishing but also marked by selfishness and injustice, especially towards the poor. It is not by chance that the prophets of the Old Testament pronounced many oracles of misfortune for such cities. Isaiah turns to Sidon and says: "Be ashamed!" (Is 23:4) and Ezekiel predicts the destruction of Tyre because of the pride that fills it (Ez 26:1-21; 27:1-36). And yet the sin of not accepting Jesus’ preaching is considered much greater than that committed by Tyre and Sidon. Jesus says that if these two cities had received the preaching of the Gospel, they would have converted. They will perhaps have a better fate on the Day of Judgment: "Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes" (Mt 11:21).
Jesus travels to this region and he immediately encounters a woman. Matthew calls her a "Canaanite" (in the parallel passage in Mark she is said to be a "Syrophoenician"). She is a pagan woman who turns to Jesus. She has certainly heard very good things about this young prophet, and perhaps she does not want to miss a chance for the miraculous healing of her daughter. She comes up to Jesus while he is walking and asks for his help. Her daughter is "tormented by a demon" (this was a painful situation for her which was made worse by all of the consequent social shame), and she asks Jesus to heal her. This might be last chance she will ever get. Therefore, she does not stop crying out for help, even when faced with Jesus’ off-putting reaction. The evangelist notes: "But he did not answer her at all." The woman insists. Her insistence provokes the intervention of the disciples. Just as in the episode of the multiplication of the loaves, they want Jesus to send her away, and they say as much: "Grant her what she wants and send her away!" But Jesus responds by saying that his mission is limited to Israel.
Not at all dismayed by this explicit refusal, the woman begs a second time, with simple words as heavy as the drama of her daughter: "Lord help me!" (These are the same words Peter speaks when he sinks in the lake). And incredibly, Jesus responds with an unheard of harshness: "It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs!" During the Sermon on the Mount Jesus had already said: "Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine" (Mt 7:6). In the Biblical tradition and the Jewish texts that drew on it, the term "dogs" alluded to adversaries, sinners, and the idolatrous pagan nations.
But the woman takes Jesus expression literally and tells him (we can translate the phrase like this): "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table." Even dogs, even those who are excluded, like the poor Lazarus, are satisfied, or better, would be satisfied with the crumbs that fall from the table if anyone threw them any. This pagan woman dares to resist Jesus, and in a certain sense, she engages in a struggle with him. One could say that her trust in that prophet is greater than the resistance of the prophet himself. And therefore, Jesus answers with an expression that is little used in the Gospels. This is "great faith," not "little faith." It is the same praise Jesus made of the centurion, and they were both pagans. Once again, the Gospel shows us how essential it is for the believer to remain faithful to God, who frees people from the anguish of only being able to trust in themselves and other men and women. This woman’s faith convinced Jesus to heal. The evangelist writes: "Then Jesus answered her: Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly." Not even God can resist a faith as great as this.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
