Reflection on the Gospel for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mt. 18: 21-35

I have always found this gospel difficult to read and understand, mainly because the Jesus portrayed here is not the compassionate figure that we usually meet in the NT. Jesus has argued with the Pharisees and crossed from Jewish territory into the Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon and there met the Canaanite woman. There was as we know a tradition of conflict between Jews and Canaanites stretching back into history.

Jesus is approached by the woman who desperate for a cure for her daughter, broke the social customs of her time by approaching a Jewish man, alone. Clearly she recognised in him a man of faith. Seemingly, Jesus ignores her. So she begins to make a nuisance of herself because the disciples ask Jesus to give her what she wants so she can be sent away. Jesus responds, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”

Jesus is clear about his identity, why and to whom he had been sent...the Jewish people. He reminds her of that when once again she asks for help.”It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to little dogs.”

But the woman persists and her response is strong ...”Ah yes Lord, but even the little dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.”....even the Gentiles have faith.

And in that moment something happens. Jesus changes. “Woman you have great faith...” I am always fascinated by what happens in that moment of dialogue when Jesus allows his heart to be changed and opened by the experience and faith of this strong and passionate woman. Her faith spoke to his own deep faith and that is the place where they met each other.....in faith. From that place they could reach out to each other in compassion.

This woman reminded Jesus that his deeper identity was greater than his Jewishness; Through her persistence she reminded him that his God was a God who looked beyond outer appearances and whose mercy is inclusive. As Isaiah reminds us in the first reading, a God whose house is a house of prayer for all the nations.

What do we learn from this strong and passionate woman for ourselves today in Lima in August 2008 ? Many things.

• That we are all capable of great faith.
• That persistence rooted in faith can be creative and bring about good...allow a compassion to flow from us into situations where it is needed.
• That our faith invites us to reflect to each other the deeper truth of who we each are beyond external appearances and the labels we place upon each other.

In these weeks together in Chapter we have come from our own lands to “foreign territory” To our own Tyre and Sidon. Quite literally we have come to another country but maybe in our hearts and minds too we have been invited to enter “countries not our own.”

We probably came here, clear about who we are, about what we do and why we do it. We brought with us the hopes, desires and expectations of our Province. We have been invited in the process of this Chapter to listen deeply...to listen  IN FAITH, to listen beyond just words, to listen to the still small voices and to listen to the loud persistent calls.

We have all met and been Canaanite women for each other in these days. Women of faith who have touched each other’s hearts, opened each other’s minds, challenged each other’s way of seeing the world and  maybe helped each other to  reflect more deeply  on who we are and what we are doing and why we are doing it.

In these days we have reminded each other of the deeper reality of who we are. Not just the external labels of RSCJ ...or RSCJ from Venezuela or England or Mexico or Congo or Latin America or Europe or wherever. No, every day and in many different ways we have reminded each other that we are women, gifted women, deeply rooted in our relationship with God,... bound together in faith ...whose lives are given in love.

And it has from that place of meeting together in faith that we have been able to work together, to dialogue and respond to the calls we have heard in the Chapter. None of us will go home unchanged. For some life may have changed more than others but I am sure no-one will go home unchanged.

Many of us have begun to leave for home. Our bodies are still here, we have still work to do but inevitably our thoughts are turning towards our return home. Yet most of us know that sometimes the richest sharing and the deepest sharing and the most important words come in the dying moments of conversations or meetings.

Let’s encourage each other not to leave just yet......to go on listening to the end. Maybe there are still persistent calls or still small voices for us individually... something that needs to be said, something that needs to be healed or reconciled...someone we haven’t spoken to, a question that needs to be asked. Maybe there are calls to us as a Chapter that need still to be noticed and acknowledged.....and that will stay with us as we leave.

In the noise and busyness of these last days, amidst the tiredness and frustration and anxiety, we may miss some of the riches God has yet to give us. I invite each one to listen in these days to the many ways in which God might be saying to us what he said to the Canaanite woman... “Women you have great faith, let your desires be granted.”

Let us pray for each other in these final days   
Lord move us from where we are now to where you need us to be
From  what we are now to what you want to make of us
From what we know to the adventure of what you want to reveal to us.
Comfort us with your presence, Sustain us with your love and Inspire us you’re your passion.

This we ask through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.