Well, since I didn’t see anybody laughing or even smiling when I read it, I guess I will have to explain today's gospel story which I consider one of the funniest in the whole New Testament!
First of all, however, I think I should give you a little background. This is the first and only time Jesus is reported as being outside Jewish territory. Jesus deliberately went there to get away from the demands of the crowds who were constantly pursuing him and to get away from the hostility of the Scribes and Pharisees. He needed some quiet time to think and pray about the terrible days he had come to realize that were ahead of him. By leaving Jewish territory and entering Gentile territory, he assumed that very few of his fellow Jews would follow him.
No sooner than Jesus had crossed the border, a woman who had heard about him and the wonderful things he could do for hurting people, showed up and came up to him asking for help for her afflicted daughter. She was not only a Gentile, she was a Canaanite Gentile and Canaanites were ancestral enemies of the Jews.
The text says that Jesus didn’t say a word to her in to answer to her request! Maybe it was because Jewish men were forbidden by law to speak to women in public? Maybe, as human, he was struggling with his own prejudices? Maybe he was just trying to pull himself together and think about how to help her? In any case, imagine that moment of awkward silence as they stood there in a stand-off – Jesus not saying anything and her not leaving! Not being able to stand that awkward silence, the disciples of Jesus intervene. “Jesus, tell her to get out of here and quit calling out after you!” Not dissuaded by their angry rebuff, the desperate woman approached Jesus, bowed to him and said simply, “Lord, help me!”
Here's where the fun starts! It loses something in translation so I am going to have to try to explain it in such a way that you’ll get the humorous exchange. Jesus says something quite awful-sounding to her, but you have to imagine him smiling and winking knowingly at her as he says it. Both Jesus and the woman knew, and everyone standing around knew, that the Jewish nickname for Gentiles was “dogs.” Jesus says to her in response to her request, “It is not right to take food that belongs to Jewish children and give it to “dogs” like you!” (Wink! Wink!) The word he used here is similar to the "b" word we have for “vicious females!”
She must have picked up on Jesus teasing her as he was saying out loud what everybody looking on was thinking about her. Instead of using the “b” word for a female dog, in her answer she uses the word for a “little puppies” or cute “household pets.” “Please, Lord, for even “little puppies” like me don’t mind eating the scrapes that fall from their master’s table!” (Wink! Wink!) It almost like she is saying to the smiling Jesus, “Harmless little Gentile "puppies" like me don’t mind eating left-over scraps from Jews like yourself!”
I have always imagined them laughing and hugging each other after their verbal exchange as Jesus says to her, “O, woman, great is your faith! Let it be done as you wish! Your daughter is healed!”
Remember, this story takes place outside Jewish territory. The significance of this story is that it foreshadows the going out of the gospel to the whole world; it shows us the beginning of the end of all the barriers between God and the peoples of the world!
We have a long way to go, but some of us remember the days when we Catholics believed that non-Catholics would probably not make it to heaven? Others of us will remember the days when many Protestants thought we Catholics would certainly not make it to heaven because we did not have that “born-again” experience that they had!
Just to remind you of how far we have become, let me remind you of what the Catholic Church actually teaches today about other religions. These words come from the Vatican Council II documents.
The Document of Ecumenism says this: “Catholics must joyfully acknowledge and esteem the truly Christian endowments from our common heritage which are to be found among our Protestant brothers and sisters. Nor should we forget that whatever is wrought by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of our separated brothers and sisters can contribute to our own edification.” (That's worth repeating!) Wow! We have come a long way, haven't we? I have benefitted greatly by what I have learned over the years since those post-Vatican II years. I preached one whole summer in Crater Lake National Park under the auspices of the United Church of Christ. I got more help in learning to preach from them than I did from Saint Meinrad Seminary! I got my Doctorate in Parish Revitalization from McCormick Presbyterian Seminary in Chicago! It was because of what I learned from the Presbyterians that I was able to do what I did to revitalize the Cathedral of the Assumption parish downtown in the 1980s and 1990s!
The Document on Non-Christian Religions says this: “The Church rejects, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against others, or harassment of them, because of their race, color, condition of life or religion.” (That too is worth repeating!) Wow again! We have come a long long way, haven't we? It was because of that Vatican II Document that we were able to start the Cathedral Heritage Foundation, now called the Center for Interfaith Relations, which is still functioning around our Cathedral downtown for almost 40 years now!
Would
that we would all dedicate ourselves to living what today's passage from the Gospel of Matthew tells
us and what the Church clearly teaches us in our relations with other peoples
and their religions! Yes, indeed, we have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go! Let us especially reject those loud screeching voices today who want to take us back to the way things used to be - from the tolerance and ecumenism of today to the intolerance and religious bigotry of yesterday! I don't know about you, but I'm certainly not going back to those days!
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