Q & A (2011-08-14)

This is my homily for Sunday, 14 August 2011. I am a Catholic chaplain at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) campus and for the FDU Newman Catholic Association. We celebrate Catholic Mass - during Fall and Spring semester - every Sunday Mass (7:30 p.m.) at the Interfaith Chapel, 842 River Road, Teaneck, NJ. We resume our Sunday schedule on Sunday August 28, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.

Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 | Psalm 67 | Romans 11:13-15, 29-32 | Matthew 15:21-28

[__01 ___] For what do we pray for, regarding examinations at school?
What is our hope? Aspiration?

Success, an A, a high mark. Sure. This is our goal. However, to reach this goal we pray for the strength of wisdom and the power of recognition.

That is, I pray for the ability to recognize the questions being asked. Once I recognize the questions – and understand the questions – I can use my intelligence, my understanding, to write answers.

[__02 ___] In this Gospel, a Canaanite woman approaches with a question, a petition which Jesus the miracle worker could surely grant easily.
Her petition: “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.”

But, Jesus – at first – seems not to welcome here. We read, “he does not say a word in answer to her.” Is Jesus behaving in the way similar to many of our teachers or bosses or other supervisors might?

Is Jesus simply making her jump through hoops? That’s the test – jumping through hoops – that we give to test or train animals … a dog, perhaps? Jump through hoops, and we hear about dogs in this Gospel reading also.

So, Jesus pauses, temporarily seems to turn her down, by debating with her.
The woman herself is, in fact, being tested. And, so are all the disciples and all of us. Peter the apostle is, for example, tested when he is invited come out of the boat to walk on water.

We should be careful here. This woman is not being tested – nor are you/I tested – by God because we are because we are unworthy.

Nor are we given trick questions.

The testing has a different origin. We endure suffering – and testing – because we share in the Passion and Death of Good Friday and the Resurrection of Easter Sunday. This is Jesus’ final test – the Passion - when he himself is sent “to the dogs” a test that he registers for on his own. (cf. Isaiah 53:7, “his own will”) .

Being arrested on the night before he dies, Jesus is questioned, punished – in fact –for not providing the desired – or popular- answers. But, he wins our salvation by having the right answers.

[__03 ___] The Lord is inviting this Canaanite woman – and all of us – to come to him with our questions, even to debate with him.

This woman uses all of her heart, mind, strength in this prayer, this dialogue with Christ.

She even revisits her original statement and petition, restates her question, saying in effect:

“Lord, I have seen that you fill the hungry with good things. I sense that you love me and care for me and my daughter. But, you know what, even if you can only give me a little bit of help, even a “scrap”, I will take whatever you can offer. ”
And, in her debate with Jesus, she uses her reason/experience and her faith. She is saying, “Thy will be done [in my life].”

[__04___] This woman uses her reasoning to debate with Jesus, who is not making her jump through hoops, but invites her – and us – to use our intelligence – our reasoning to get answers to the right questions.

And, to keep the conversation with the Lord going whether the exam is a midterm or a final. [__FIN__]