TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“Therefore, I say to you “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and

 given to a people that will produce its fruit”

Mt. 21, 33-43

Rev. Alexander Diaz

We are celebrating the twenty-seventh Sunday in ordinary time, Jesus keeps on explaining to us the Kingdom of God thru parables, thru those parables, He wants us to have knowledge of the truth.

This Sunday’s parable is known as the “homicidal tenants”, the Lord resumes the history of salvation. He compares Israel to a chosen vineyard, with a hedge around it, with a wine press in it, and a high watch tower, where the guard in charge of protecting it will stand.  God had spared no effort cultivating and beautifying His vineyard. 

He has given us all the resources, so we can work and develop this vineyard to the maximum. Each of the elements with which the Lord has prepared this vineyard has its own significance: the servants, sent to the vineyard by the Lord, are the Prophets, that throughout history have been responsible to announce the good news to the people. 

They were charged to ensure that the people increase their knowledge and be aware of the graces God was bestowing and providing on the vineyard.  To denounce to the people their small appreciation without the vision of all the graces that were given to them by the Lord.  

The Son is Jesus, killed outside the walls of Jerusalem, let us remembered, He was crucified on the Golgota, outside of the great city, condemned with scorn and hate by the tenants of the vineyard, who are the unfaithful Jews, the  Scribes and Pharisees, who thought themselves owners of the temple and the religion at that time.  Hence, forgetting that they had their positions by the mercy and grace of God, the creator and Lord of all. 

The other people, who will become tenants of the vineyard were the pagans, non-Jewish people.  They were looked down at, seeing with disdain and despised by the authorities of the time.  They were, after all, the ones who really listened and practiced the teachings  of Jesus.   The absence of the owner shows us, that God really confided His vineyard to Israel and its leaders.  From there comes the responsibility of these leaders and the demands of the owner to be accountable, hence the reason He sends His servants to obtain His produce.

Again He sends more servants, more numerous than the first ones, to claim what was justly owned Him, but they have the same fate as the first group.  This is in reference to the ill-treatment infringed, given to God’s prophets by the kings and high priests of Israel.   

St Matthew tells us in the Gospel passage that: “the high priests and the Pharisees, upon hearing the parables understood He was referring to them”.  Finally, the owner sends His own Son, thinking they were going to listen and respect Him. But when the tenants saw the Son, they said to one another:  “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire His inheritance”.  That was the despicable plan of the leaders of the Sinagogue, blinded by ambition and selfishness, they planned to become the owners of Israel by killing Jesus. 

For us, Christians of this time and all times, this parable is an exhortation for us to be more faithful to Christ.  Then we won’t reoffend God with the same offenses of the Jews in the parable.  

We should be aware of the gifts that God gives us.  This Sunday ‘s gospel invite us to reflect on the time and the gifts that God has given us throughout our lives.  Sometimes we become aware that our life is passing by and when we try to add the fruits we have given out for the good of the world, the Church and the souls, we end up with very poor and rickety results. 

¿What happened? ¿Have we used our intelligence, our will and the gifts we have received? ¿Have we lived like an abandoned vineyard without realizing that our mission was to produce sweet grapes?  ¿Or have we lived like the tenants of the vineyard, worrying about ourselves and not of the love that the vineyard owner felt? 

Times keeps passing on, while there is life, there is hope for true conversion, for real transformation. ¿How many people when confronted  by  Mother Theresa and taken to her house in Calcuta, discovered in those poor dying men and women, that they had to and were supposed to do something with their lives?   Let us not wait until tomorrow to discover this in our own lives. 

God expects a lot from us.  We are His vineyard, His favorite vineyard, and He is happy and glorified when we produce lots of fruits.   The fruits are in relation to our meekness and docility to the actions of God. 

Therefore, to give good fruits it is necessary to be meek to the plans of God.  Each one of us has his/her own vocation and have been situated in the precise place in the Church, we are where we are supposed to be.  Each one of us therefore, has a personal and not transferable mission.

We are not to carry out our mission any way we want or according to our whim.   Our fruitful and spiritual success is based on our obedience to God’s plan, as we can see it in the lives of all the Saints.

The secret is based on our identification with the obedient Christ, who suffers and gives His life for the rescue and the salvation of all men and women.   The spiritual fertility always goes thru the cross and the pain.  Whoever wants to be fruitful running away from this law of salvation is mistaken, and one day will end up bitterly disappointed.  

“Without the shedding of the blood, there will be no redemption.”     AMEN!!

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Thus the last will be first and the first will be last”

Mt.20,1-16

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Every Sunday the word leads us to face ourselves, to find ourselves, to find the valuable grace of God in our lives, to be able to see His love and mercy, His gratitude and His generosity for each and every one of us.  Today’s  readings as in all the previous Sunday’s readings, are amazing, incredible, because they show in a very clear and rich way the goodness and kindness of God. The reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah presents God giving us as a gift, His total and free forgiveness.  The forgiveness the Lord gives to the ones who try to live in accordance with the demands of faith, is an act of mercy that has no comparison among human being.  God gives us the opportunity to look for Him and find Him, He is clear when He makes this call: ”Seek the Lord while he may be found” (Is. 55,6).  Lots of people ask themselves, as I have done in many occasions myself,  where is God, where is His presence and at the same time I realize, that He is closer than I think.  He places Himself in our path so we can find Him and follow His footsteps.   But we become blinded by our own complexes and whims.  All the opportunities He gives us have a just value and we should take advantage of them.   Only the one who take advantage of these opportunities will triumph completely in this life.  On the other hand, if we don’t take advantage of them, we are self-damning ourselves to fail and always stay behind.  Full of frustrations, in an act of cowardice in this absurd and senseless life.   Therefore, the call He makes us to look for Him,  is a call to be alert, to awaken us, to open our eyes and feel how close God is to us.  He is so close, that if we really perceived His presence, His look of love will vividly penetrate our hearts.  This is the reason why, in today’s gospel, Jesus presents us the example of the rich man who goes out, looking for the ones who have nothing to do, the ones who waste their time, because according to them, nobody wants to hire them. 

God goes out time and time again looking for each one of us, to hire us to come and work in His vineyard, at any time of our lives, he is always there to give us the opportunity to keep us working towards our own salvation.   Nobody can say, he is good for nothing, and should never say he was never called to work in the task to extend this kingdom of life. 

This parable really summons my attention, the generosity of God when making this call.  Some He calls in the morning, others at noon, yet others late in the evening.  The human logic and to a certain point to do justice in our human eyes, is that each one should receive was is rightfully theirs for the time worked, nevertheless God thinks different than all of us, He even tells us so in the first reading, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways”. (Is. 55,8), it is hard to accept and to understand.

Why is this? Jesus, who is the owner of the fields and relates the parable, does not explain to us the reason of this apparent “injustice”.  Therefore, to analyze and understand the message hidden in this story, we should realize, first of all that the Lord is not trying to give us a lesson in psychology about the moral of the salary.  The parable is not trying to stimulate the lazy ones not to work and the lukewarm to leave their conversion for a later date.  Instead He tries to indicate to us that God can call at any time, first thing in the morning, or late in the evening or even at midday or when He so desires and we should always be ready to respond no matter the time He calls us – be it the time it might be –without hesitation, without looking for excuses and without delaying our answer to Him.  The salary will be the same for all because Jesus is talking to us about our eternal salvation which is for everyone and anyone who wants to be and work in the Lord’s vineyard.

Jesus also wants to warn us about our jealousy, the sin of wanting what belong to others,  what they have should be ours instead, ours  alone.  This diabolic desire make us feel frustrated, mad, annoyed for the goods  received by others.   How many people literally destroy their fellow man with their hate, their excessive rancor caused by their jealousy.  They will destroy their neighbor because of the promotion received from the generosity of their superiors, or for the personal qualities that this particular individual have on his personal and integral development.  The Lord warns the jealous laborers that complained and demanded: “Are you envious because I am generous?”

God does not admit rivalry or jealousy among His children, He wants us to be happy with the goods that belong to our fellow man, as if they were ours. If not so, we are jealous, which is a sin, a hidden sin, one we feel very often, more than we might be aware of.  If we want to be faithful to the Lord, from the first hour, we have to be happy with the ones that come in the last hour.  We have to rejoice and be happy because these are the souls that are receiving their salvation.  And we have to also rejoice because the ones who came in early, had the opportunity to serve the Lord all their lives or most of their lives.   The final phrase is also controversial, but we should notice the fact that the Lord repeats it with great insistence in the Gospel, it refers to different situations: “The last will be first and the first will be last” (Mt. 19,30).  What is the significance of this sentence to the Lord? The first thing we should be aware of is that He does not say that the last are the only ones to get there and that the first will not get there.  Simply He inverts the time of arrival.  Hence, the most important thing is that everyone, the first and the last, will get there.  It signifies that God offers salvation to all: He welcomes the sinners and the non-believers that have just converted in the autumn of their lives.  At the same time, maintains with His Grace, those who since their childhood and youth have lived united to Him.

The final pay, today’s Gospel tells us, is not the quantity, the number of services we render that counts, but the love with which we do it. Eveything God gives us with His grace, we don’t deserve.  What He gives us is not a paycheck, but a gift, it is not a salary, but His Santifying Grace.  This gift of His Grace should encourage us to be more faithful to Him, to become Saints.  The Christian  should not go out looking for Christ  to receive a salary, but should work joyfully and be happy to serve God and our fellow men.   We should not think about the rewards or the compensation we will receive for our work and/or our services. We all have to learn from the mercy of God and His generosity.  To work for the Gospel is an honor. It is an honor to be called to participate in the adventure of bringing others closer to the presence of God.  Even if this means to cope with the heavy weight of each day. 

Don’t be afraid to live under God’s presence.           AMEN!!

TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“Therefore, I say to you “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you andgiven to a people that will produce its fruit”

Mt. 21, 33-43

Rev. Alexander Diaz

We are celebrating the twenty-seventh Sunday in ordinary time, Jesus keeps on explaining to us the Kingdom of God thru parables, thru those parables, He wants us to have knowledge of the truth.

This Sunday’s parable is known as the “homicidal tenants”, the Lord resumes the history of salvation. He compares Israel to a chosen vineyard, with a hedge around it, with a wine press in it, and a high watch tower, where the guard in charge of protecting it will stand. God had spared no effort cultivating and beautifying His vineyard.

He has given us all the resources, so we can work and develop this vineyard to the maximum. Each of the elements with which the Lord has prepared this vineyard has its own significance: the servants, sent to the vineyard by the Lord, are the Prophets, that throughout history have been responsible to announce the good news to the people.

They were charged to ensure that the people increase their knowledge and be aware of the graces God was bestowing and providing on the vineyard. To denounce to the people their small appreciation without the vision of all the graces that were given to them by the Lord.

The Son is Jesus, killed outside the walls of Jerusalem, let us remembered, He was crucified on the Golgota, outside of the great city, condemned with scorn and hate by the tenants of the vineyard, who are the unfaithful Jews, the Scribes and Pharisees, who thought themselves owners of the temple and the religion at that time. Hence, forgetting that they had their positions by the mercy and grace of God, the creator and Lord of all.

The other people, who will become tenants of the vineyard were the pagans, non-Jewish people. They were looked down at, seeing with disdain and despised by the authorities of the time. They were, after all, the ones who really listened and practiced the teachings of Jesus. The absence of the owner shows us, that God really confided His vineyard to Israel and its leaders. From there comes the responsibility of these leaders and the demands of the owner to be accountable, hence the reason He sends His servants to obtain His produce.

Again He sends more servants, more numerous than the first ones, to claim what was justly owned Him, but they have the same fate as the first group. This is in reference to the ill-treatment infringed, given to God’s prophets by the kings and high priests of Israel.

St Matthew tells us in the Gospel passage that: “the high priests and the Pharisees, upon hearing the parables understood He was referring to them”. Finally, the owner sends His own Son, thinking they were going to listen and respect Him. But when the tenants saw the Son, they said to one another: “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire His inheritance”. That was the despicable plan of the leaders of the Sinagogue, blinded by ambition and selfishness, they planned to become the owners of Israel by killing Jesus.

For us, Christians of this time and all times, this parable is an exhortation for us to be more faithful to Christ. Then we won’t reoffend God with the same offenses of the Jews in the parable.

We should be aware of the gifts that God gives us. This Sunday ‘s gospel invite us to reflect on the time and the gifts that God has given us throughout our lives. Sometimes we become aware that our life is passing by and when we try to add the fruits we have given out for the good of the world, the Church and the souls, we end up with very poor and rickety results.

¿What happened? ¿Have we used our intelligence, our will and the gifts we have received? ¿Have we lived like an abandoned vineyard without realizing that our mission was to produce sweet grapes? ¿Or have we lived like the tenants of the vineyard, worrying about ourselves and not of the love that the vineyard owner felt?

Times keeps passing on, while there is life, there is hope for true conversion, for real transformation. ¿How many people when confronted by Mother Theresa and taken to her house in Calcuta, discovered in those poor dying men and women, that they had to and were supposed to do something with their lives? Let us not wait until tomorrow to discover this in our own lives.

God expects a lot from us. We are His vineyard, His favorite vineyard, and He is happy and glorified when we produce lots of fruits. The fruits are in relation to our meekness and docility to the actions of God.

Therefore, to give good fruits it is necessary to be meek to the plans of God. Each one of us has his/her own vocation and have been situated in the precise place in the Church, we are where we are supposed to be. Each one of us therefore, has a personal and not transferable mission.

We are not to carry out our mission any way we want or according to our whim. Our fruitful and spiritual success is based on our obedience to God’s plan, as we can see it in the lives of all the Saints.

The secret is based on our identification with the obedient Christ, who suffers and gives His life for the rescue and the salvation of all men and women. The spiritual fertility always goes thru the cross and the pain. Whoever wants to be fruitful running away from this law of salvation is mistaken, and one day will end up bitterly disappointed.

“Without the shedding of the blood, there will be no redemption.” AMEN!!

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

“¿Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive?”

Mt. 18, 21-35

Rev. Alexander Diaz

This Sunday’s gospel is challenging and to a certain extent, hard to apply to our own lives, because it touches one of the most vulnerable and difficult parts to understand.  To forgive is not easy, because it means, closing a wound without asking for an explanation. Forgiveness is one of the most crazy inventions of God, it is difficult to understand, accept and apply. 

Peter had a very hard time understanding it and in order to feel better, he goes to the Teacher and asked, in order to clarify his confusion: “¿Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive?   ¿As many as seven times?”  Jesus answered:  “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven time” (Mt. 18,21-22)

In other words, always.  It will be necessary a great interior change, in order for this forgiveness to take place.  First to be able to understand it.  Then, to apply it even in circumstances where it is natural and fair to feel hate and vengeance.  And afterwards, to ask the strength to live above contradictory feelings. 

To love the one who loves us it’s common and very easy to carry on, it is to do good to whomever does us good, every human being does that, more or less. But the follower of Christ has to live a more superior love.  He must love also when he is insulted and persecuted. He must forgive, a very difficult element to accept because our fragile human nature will not accept it.  

When Peter talks about seven times, is using the number of spiritual perfection.  Jesus answered seventy times seven, which means that we are to forgive all the time, always, as long as the person who offends you is in a disposition of being forgiven.  Jesus speaks to us in an explicit way, He tells us that we are not to keep an account of how many times we have forgiven. It does not pay to keep an account of how many times we have been insulted or offended. 

What is  gained by doing that?  What we can gain is to live a bitter existence, to sink deeper in our hateful misery, our desperation and bitterness. If God should keep count of our offenses, we all will be lost, because we offend Him constantly and excessively.  Therefore, we should erase from our memory the many times we have forgiven and the many times we have been offended or insulted. 

Mother Theresa used to say: “To forgive is a decision, not a feeling, because when we forgive we don’t feel the offense anymore, we don’t feel any resentment. Forgive because by forgiving your soul will be at peace and the soul of the one who insulted you will be at peace also.” To forgive from the heart is a huge challenge that man has. To forgive as we are forgiven. Only the one who realizes what sin really is, an offense to God; who sees sin as an authentic mystery of iniquety,  can perceive the greatness of God, who forgives and learns the difficult and divine way to love.

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” we pray daily, probably many times during the day.  The Lord awaits this generosity that will make us look like Him.  Because if you forgive others their trespasses, also your celestial Father will forgive you. 

This disposition is part of the norm frequently confirmed by our Lord throughout the entire gospel.  Absolve and you will be absolved.  Give and it shall be given to you. The measure you use for others is the same one that will be used for you.  

Jesus invites us to acquire the habit to forgive as God forgives us. The Lord came to give heart to human forgiveness, from there, from the heart, is from the place where we will understand the parable that we have just heard.   In order to forgive, we should have in mind certain elements:

     - To forgive and be merciful towards the one who offended or insulted us

     - To forgive ourselves

     - We are a reflection of God’s forgiveness for our brothers and sister and for ourselves.

For Christian forgiveness it is important to be conscious that we are forgiven by God, since forgiveness really acquire real  meaning when you see it through the eye of God and from His divine dimension, without it, it turns to be a simple false and without meaning. 

Only the one who forgives his fellow-man can await the forgiveness of God, this is what Jesus tells us in today’s gospel, hence every sin we commit against Him, is a huge fault.   To summarize, we have to forgive from our hearts.  God looks at the heart, where sin forges,  it is also where forgiveness should be forge.

AMEN!!

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny himself”

(Mt. 16,21-27)

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Today’s gospel is a direct continuation of last week’s, it shows us a Peter that turns from a hero to becoming a stumbling stone.  All caused by his inability to see what is going on from God’s view.  In his simplicity, he allows his feelings to dominate the reality of his life.  Jesus began to show them that He had to go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, be killed and on the third day be raised. 

These ideas made no sense in the heads and minds of the twelve, since suffering and death were not in their priority list, least of all the characteristics in reference to the Messiah.  Jesus began to openly speak to them.  He talks to them about the suffering and the death that awaited Him, also talked to them about the resurrection, most of them saw this thru a fatalist mentality. 

Peter, being the impulsive one among them, trying to be the Teachers counselor, took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him, saying: “God forbid, Lord. No such thing shall ever happen to you”. (Mt. 16, 21-27).  Jesus’ reply to Peter was very harsh: “Get behind me, Satan!  You are an obstacle to me.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do”. 

Surprisingly this hard answer of our Lord to Peter, more so, when a few moments before Peter had been named as the great Leader of the Church and Jesus had congratulated him for recognizing him as the Messiah.  That is why Jesus calls Peter, “Satan” and accused him of thinking as human beings do and not as God does. 

God’s thinking is very different from the world’s way of thinking.   The problem is that we, human being, instead of adapting our thoughts to God’s, we want God to adapt to ours.   Peter with his natural wisdom and the unique comfort of the human being invites us to look for the most comfortable position.

Peter thinks as many of us do, he thinks that suffering is not necessary or significant, that it is totally negative to the human being and that is an obstacle for the development of the present life.   Even though the Lord’s answer is sharp, there is in the language used by Jesus, a lesson to be learned, where he wants to let us know that everything has a different meaning if seeing thru the eyes of God.

When we think that this or other thing happening in our lives are a certain misfortune, humanly speaking, we have to look at the deepest significance where it is shown to us God’s will for our existence.   A true follower of Jesus, follows Him thru pain, with the honor of being a proven and determined Christian.

It should not be the other way around, the one who follows Jesus only to be honored to be His follower, but not by participating in His pain and suffering.  Jesus sets certain specific conditions for His followers:

 

  -Deny himself  = this means to forget ourselves, which is not easy to do. It is to tell my ego, which we all have inside and that inclines us to be self-centered, autonomous and  self-sufficient, we do not want to follow our own plans, and least of all our own interests, instead we want to depend for all and in all on God, and not to suffer at all.  I think that the greatest obstacle to follow Jesus is not the circumstances of our lives, nor the people around us, the greatest obstacle to follow Him is ourselves.  It is too hard for us to allow God to guide or direct our personalities.

   - Take up the cross = this is not to take, in a masochistic way, our daily problems. It is to accept our cross for Christ with the necessary optimism and willingly, embracing it respectfully, even though many do not understand the reason why we embrace the things we do.  It is to embrace the cross with passion and joy, even though it is heavy and weight us down.

  -  Follow me = This means to walk in God’s rhythm, the rhythm of His will.  Not the other way around, most of the time we want God to walk at our rhythm, this is what happened to Peter, it is not what we want, but what God wants to put in front of us for our personal, moral and spiritual development.

To follow Christ, you have to lose your life. We have to renounce to what seems to be life, renounce to what the world present us as if it was the most important thing in life.  Pleasure, power, wealth, success, riches, comfort, satisfactions, attachments, all these things, some of which are licit, they are all part of “that life” to which we have to renounce in order to be able to embrace the cross that Jesus presents us. 

If we are willing to lose all that, we will obtain the Real Life, in other words, the one that await for us after we leave this earth.  If by contrast, we find all those things and others, more important and mistakenly try to save them as if they were the only thing in life, we can take the risk of losing it all:  what is here and what is there, the life and The Life. For “¿What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”  (Mt 16,26)

Amen!!

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

"You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it."

Mt 16:13-20

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Today’s liturgy is rich in content and in meaning because we hear about two significant events; knowing Jesus in His fullness and who He really is and the second event is the institution of Peter who was given the power to bind and loose as head of the Apostolic College.

Jesus asked his disciples what people thought of Him and His personality. Not an easy question to answer because there was a risk of answering something foolish and pointless. Today it is Jesus who asks - "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

He does not ask, "What do the scribes and Pharisees says I am?" They were the experts, those who really knew what to expect in the difficult and complicated subjects of faith. He asks "Who do people say ..." he was talking about those who surrounded him, who had heard Him preaching and performing miracles, we can say that they were really in direct contact with Him.

The Pharisees despised people and it is Jesus himself who wants to hear the voice of the despised. Many times we forget those voices that implore those that can help and light up our way of life of faith. You may even believe that the saints are always away from us, far from our lives and our reality.

As we heard in the gospel, the answers about his identity varied; all have their own opinion about Him, and all see Him according to their convenience, sadly but that’s how it is. And sadly, until today it remains a controversy alive in the midst of humanity.

For some He is the first communist, for others a good psychologist and teacher, others see it as a revolutionary leader, but He is much, much more than that ... The Lord goes much further and now it's up to them, his intimate friends to define to their master: “But who do you say that I am?" A new question has another completely different content. It is more intimate. It's a closed circle with which he has summoned them and explained the parables.

Peter responds on behalf of the others. When He asked about the people, it was the disciples who responded, now it is Peter who becomes the spokesman of the group and makes a confession of faith: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Immediately Jesus called him Blessed (happy) because he had grasp exactly who is the Lord.

The sages of Israel did not capture what Peter and the Apostles themselves could grasp. They were wise and rational, but the simple and humble whom the Father reveals its mysteries. So show them who is your Son. (Matt. 11: 25)

To reason is to be in a sincere search for the truth, as the sterile arguments do not lead anywhere. We need simplicity, humility, spiritual childhood, to learn the secrets of God and to realize where God is. A living faith, fervent, persevering, unyielding only comes from God and only comes to those who are open to this gift. And the key that opens our hearts and minds to the things of God is humility.

Jesus rewards the apostle with words that resonate for eternity and have been disputed by many, although I've never understood why they do it is less clear if there is no room for discussion.

"You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church, the powers of death can never win..." (Mt.16, 18). Jesus speaks of His Church as something he was going to build, it is divine and not human. And promises that no force, even those in Hell will destroy his work.

"What you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven," which is to say: whatever you decide on the earth, will be decided well in Heaven. The decisions you make, must be approved by me. Prior approval from me in Heaven at all what you decide on the earth over my church. This weighed on Peter and all the popes after him, had to have special assistance.

Jesus builds his Church with the constant presence of his Holy Spirit to the end, as rational in a world like ours, it seems difficult to understand and accept. But it is. Christ founded His Church as well. He promised to be with her until the end. "I am with you always until the end of the age" (Mt. 28, 20)

TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“O WOMAN, GREAT IS YOUR FAITH”

Mt. 15, 21-28

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Jesus leaves the Jews’ territory and goes to the region of Tyre and Sidon, a multitude followed Him, and among this multitude,  a Canaanite woman of that district appeared, she was a gentile (we have to make clear that when we talk about gentile, it does not refer to a kind person, the  gentiles were the people  who were not Jews). 

The main reason this woman approached Jesus is, because of her daughter, her daughter was sick, she comes looking for Jesus’ mercy.  This woman represents the heart of a depressed mother caused by the suffering of her child. To deeply understand this Gospel we have to understand that according to the Jews of that time, they were the only ones called for salvation and the Messiah was coming only to save them. 

According to their belief, the gentiles were an inferior race who had no access to salvation and therefore had no right to divine mercy or comfort. 

Jesus breaks this established way of thinking, because when He saw the faith of this woman He is not interested to know her nationality, whether she is Jew or not, He only has mercy for her. Even though the dialog between them is strong in nature. It is possible that our modern mentality will fail to capture the deep significance of the encounter between the woman and the Teacher, but it has a great significance, a great meaning.  

Sometimes God places us in a position of impotence and the only way out is to beg His mercy, whether we are Christians or Pagans, believers or non-believers, religious or non-religious, practicing Catholics or cold Catholics.  It is probably what happened to this mother,  even though she was Pagan, she was so distressed by her daughter’s situation, that she has no choice but to go to the Messiah of the Jews.

Impressive, this non-Jewish woman, called Jesus, “son of David”, by which term she is recognizing  Jesus as the Messiah  the Jewish people were waiting for.  Impressive, also, that being a pagan, she asked Jesus to heal her daughter, who is “terribly tormented by a demon”.  Jesus does not say a word in answer to her, ignores her plead, makes believe He does not hear. That is the way God acts sometimes: He makes believe He does not hear us.  And ¿why? or rather, ¿how come? – To reinforce our faith.

We talk about “to put to a test” our faith. But it is not about “a test” of our faith as a test in itself, rather as an exercise to strengthen our faith.  Anyone of us would have answered instantly without asking “where are you from or what is your status”, when He hears that “she is possessed by a demon” Jesus takes a strong, serious and difficult attitude, Jesus answered: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs”.

As the trainer ask the athlete to tense his muscles and add more resistance to them, to be better prepared, the Lord keep on trying the faith of the Canaanite woman. 

The woman does not give up or loses her faith.  She does not walk away mad or disgusted, maybe thinking, nobody loves me, how mean he was and yet he calls himself the Messiah.  I am impressed, because definitely, she will not take “no” for an answer. Rather, she will humbly and simply respond to Jesus’ arguments inrefutely: “even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters”   

The woman’s faith have been reinforced with the apparent rejection of our Lord.  And now the woman’s faith is rewarded, because she obtains what she asked of Jesus.  The gospel tells us that “her daughter was healed from that hour”.  Then Jesus said to her in reply: “O woman, great is your faith”.  And, how great is the Lord! He  gives us credit for what comes from Him. Faith is a gift that God himself have given us!

This woman represents so many of us, men and women, who actually live and experience so much sorrow, grief, needs in our lives. The doctor visits us; the problems are many, the sadness and sorrow smother, suffocate us.  “Have pity on me, Lord!” It is the cry of the soul who feels God so distant, so far away. 

Without any doubt, we want an immediate answer and we get discouraged if we don’t get it. How many times we ask, most of the time, with no result.  ¿Why God does not listen to us? We become dishearten, discouraged, we tend to doubt God and many times we get desperate.  ¿Could it be that God is testing us? ¿For how long our faith will stand?  

Wait a bit longer. Insist like this woman did. God allows this anguish to purify your intention, so you continue to trust and believe in Him even if He does not pay you any attention the first time. 

The Canaanite woman of the Gospel followed Jesus calling out to Him. The disciples lost their patience and force Jesus to stop and take care of her.  We are surprised by Jesus reaction at first.   ¿Is it possible His heart was not moved, troubled, full of mercy for this poor woman?  Of course it was.  But He preferred to be patient and wait to see how far this woman believed and trusted Him. Since her faith was so great, Jesus finally told her:  “Let it be done for you as you wish.”

 At a certain moment and time He will also tell us:  “How great is your faith”.    AMEN!!