Everyone is Welcome in God's House (20.A)

 

I took the ferry to Victoria at the start of my short vacation last month. The car ahead of mine in the ferry lineup had US license plates. It also had a message written in big letters on the rear window.

“We’re Canadians! Honest, eh! Moving home from the U.S.”

I complimented the driver on his good idea. He said it was more than a good idea—it was necessary.  He had been getting some pretty nasty looks from people who spied his U.S. plates.

As you all know, Canadians aren’t rolling out the welcome mat for Americans during the pandemic. At the moment, we like our friends from the States to stay right where they are—below the 49^th parallel.

Throughout the history of salvation, God’s people have also had some interesting feelings about foreigners. Some of those feelings were very negative and hostile.

In the Old Testament, “Gentile” is no compliment. The Jewish people had been oppressed by foreign powers, breeding hatred and resentment.[1] They considered the Gentiles, the foreigners, to be worshipers of false gods and judged them harshly.

This attitude found its way into the earliest Christian community. We find unflattering references to the Gentiles right in the Gospels. “Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” Jesus asks in one place, where in another he warns against praying with empty phrases “as the Gentiles do” (cf. Matt. 5:47, 10:5).

Worse still, Jesus say the renegade Christian is to be treated like “a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matt. 18:17). We heard those words at daily Mass on Wednesday.

So, there’s the background to the challenging conversation between the Lord and the Canaanite woman that we’ve just heard. She’s not only a Gentile, but a follower of a religion particularly repulsive to the Chosen People.

What Jesus said about Israel being his priority wouldn’t have surprised the disciples. The Book of Exodus calls Israel God’s “firstborn son,” while Deuteronomy says, “it is you the Lord has chosen out of all the peoples of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” [2]

So Jesus certainly didn’t shock anybody, or the woman herself, with his strong language.

What’s truly shocking is how the story ends. Despite the seeming harshness of the exchange, Jesus recognizes the faith of the Canaanite woman, and grants her prayer—"instantly,” as the Gospel says.

A new era has begun!

Before we talk about the meaning of this miracle for us, let’s backtrack to the first reading. I’ve described the hostile history of Jew for Gentile, but here we see something else. Foreigners can come to the Lord and worship him in the temple!

Today’s Psalm celebrates this, calling on “the nations” to join in Israel’s praise of God and to receive his blessings.

Following the law and loving the Lord are, for Isaiah, more important than being born an Israelite.

This was not the universal belief—later, the prophet Ezekiel rejected Isaiah’s view. But the seed sown in today’s first reading was destined to sprout in the Church.

The story of how that happened is too long to tell today, but the second reading shows the fruit. St. Paul received a direct call from the Lord to bring the Gospel beyond the Jewish community. He calls himself the Apostle to the Gentiles—the missionary to the nations—and his tireless journeys began the spread of the good news far beyond the people to whom it was first preached.

What does this all mean for us?

Let me answer this with a story. Before the pandemic, a quiet elderly man with limited English spoke with me after Mass. He said, quite simply, that he loved God’s house. That he wanted to be one of God’s people.

Last Sunday he appeared again. He told me that he had to return to his country, one where Christians are persecuted, and the Church is outlawed. Then he added, “I will come back.”

I hope the Lord might say to him what he said to the Canaanite woman, “great is your faith. Let it be done to you as you wish.”

God continues to call all nations to himself, and to make people joyful in this house of prayer. Our parish does not exist only for that tribe we like to call “us.”

The nine people who were baptized in this parish at Easter came from at least three countries. A majority came from the Middle East, from cultures we could certainly call foreign.

And let’s not think of modern Gentiles entirely in terms of geography. There are many people “out there” for whom the Christian message is truly foreign. We are called to welcome them with warmth and understanding—whether it’s in person or through this live stream.

No less than in Isaiah's time, these cultural “foreigners” should feel welcome to place their prayers and offerings on our altar. Today, and every Sunday, let’s pray with them and for them—so the joyful news of Jesus Christ will reach every nation and people on earth. 

 

 [1] Dictionary of the Bible, v. Gentile, p. 303

[2] Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, “The Gospel of Matthew,”