Today’s Gospel is the most disturbing story about Jesus in the New Testament. A pagan woman, not a Jew, came to Jesus to beg for the healing of her daughter. Jesus responded with a seemingly rude response, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs”. Yet the desperate woman persisted and Jesus not only healed her daughter, he praised her faith. This story is confusing because already Jesus had performed miracles for people who were not Jews. And the early Church knew that the salvation of Jesus is offered to all, Jew and Gentile equally. So why did Jesus make the woman beg for this miracle? 

There are several important lessons in this story. First, no one is entitled to favors from God. Perhaps God’s chosen people felt that they and they alone merited God’s mercy. At the heart of the Gospel message is the affirmation that all is mercy, all is grace. Salvation is not earned, but is given by a loving God. Everyone stands before God as a beggar; no one comes to God to demand what is due. And Jesus praised the woman’s faith. Her anxious concern for her daughter moved her to humility before Jesus. 

Jesus had withdrawn to pagan Tyre and Sidon precisely because he was being persecuted in Israel. John the Baptist had just been beheaded and Jesus felt deeply that he was rejected and would soon be killed. So he left Israel to pray and to gather inner strength before facing his pain-filled destiny. However, in pagan territory, he encountered faith and trust. He was consoled by the woman’s faith after being discouraged by the rejection in Israel. 

Jesus invites us to faith. He urges us to be humble before God and to trust that God cares for us, even when we are confused by life’s troubles and disappointments.