O woman, great is your faith!

8 AUGUST (Mt 15,21-28)

The foreigner is loved by God. He is a foreigner to man, but not to the Lord. To the Lord he is his creature, his “son” like every other man, he, too, called one day to join his Alliance. Precisely this was the task given by God to his people: being his prophecy, his truth, his love, his holiness in order to attract every other man to the true faith in the one true God, Lord, and Creator of the universe. What his people does not or does not want to do, God promises He himself will be the one to do it. However, the time of God never coincides with the time of man.

Thus says the Lord: Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed. Happy is the man who does this, the son of man who holds to it; Who keeps the Sabbath free from profanation, and his hand from any evildoing. Let not the foreigner say, when he would join himself to the Lord, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people”; Nor let the eunuch say, “See, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name Better than sons and daughters; an eternal, imperishable name will I give them. And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, ministering to him, Loving the name of the Lord, and becoming his servants – All who keep the Sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant, Them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; Their holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples”. (Is 56,1-7).

Man can close himself in his patterns of sin and vice. God has neither sins and nor vices. Consequently, never might there be in him any closure in his universal love, which must save all peoples. His prophecy attests, and reveals it.

I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them; from them I will send fugitives to the nations: to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory; and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations. They shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries, to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their offering to the house of the Lord in clean vessels. Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the Lord. As the new heavens and the new earth which I will make Shall endure before me, says the Lord, so shall your race and your name endure. From one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, All mankind shall come to worship before me, says the Lord. (Is 66,18-23).
The Canaanite woman that asks for the miracle, is proved by Jesus in her faith, her love, and her hope. Jesus asks constancy, firmness, and intelligence from her, in her prayer. He wants strong, resolute, determined, and firm hearts. The miracle is due to her, she deserves it, because he must also redeem, save, and bring her in his grace and truth.

Then Jesus went from that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PVO.HTM – $330and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith!”. And her daughter was healed from that hour.

Our faith must change the course of history. It teaches us that nobody is a foreigner before God. If he is not a foreigner before God, neither can he be before man; and especially near the Christian who is called in Christ to be the redeemer, saviour, and benefactor of grace and truth, toward all, always.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, and Saints give us a clear faith.