Today’s Gospel can be jarring to us. Jesus tells a persistent Canaanite woman, whose daughter “is severely possessed by a demon” (Matt. 15:22), that “it is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (15:26). And this after the woman had besought the Savior’s help three times on the matter.
At first hearing, Jesus sounds very rude. Because we know in faith that Jesus, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, could not sin, we might be tempted to think we’re relying on a faulty manuscript for Matthew 15. If a mere human had said the same thing, we’d admonish them to repent quickly.
No doubt, Jesus is trying to get the women’s attention and—by extension—our attention today.
The Canaanites engaged in gravely immoral practices and led the ancient Israelites astray, including through sacrificing their children to the demon god Molech (see Lev. 20:1–5; Jer. 32:35), and also through religious prostitution (see 1 Kgs. 14:23–24).
In this light, one might understand Jesus’s resistance to the Canaanite woman, as he earlier had proclaimed, in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you” (Matt. 7:6).
Dogs and Swine
In the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament, Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch note that these two terms, “dogs” and “swine,” were “derogatory Jewish epithets, for pagans. . . . Dogs were generally undomesticated in Jewish culture, and most were stray scavengers. Swine were especially contemptible to Jews; they were unclean and could not be eaten (Lev. 11:7–8; cf. Isa. 66:3). Jesus redirects these insulting labels to anyone inhospitable to the Gospel (cf. Phil. 3:2; Rev. 22:15).”
Jesus is no doubt testing the woman. Has she simply come to him in a moment of crisis, ready to return to her pagan ways after Jesus exorcises her daughter, whose possession likely came from her exposure to the Canaanite religion? Or is this woman actually recognizing that there is indeed one, true God, and he is now visibly in her midst? (See John 14:6).
In Matthew 15:26, Jesus softens his approach with the Canaanite woman, as Hahn and Mitch note the Greek word Matthew uses is “little dogs” or “puppies,” i.e., an animal which would be domesticated.
Still, it’s not a compliment. Yet, instead of angrily walking away from Jesus, the woman seizes on the linguistic opening, replying that even household pets benefit from being in their owner’s homes: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (15:27). Jesus, humanly struck by her response, proclaims, “‘O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly” (15:28).
All Nations
While Jesus came “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” during his earthly ministry (15:24), Scripture had made clear that God’s plan would ultimately encompass all the nations or “Gentiles,” i.e., the whole world (Gen. 22:18; see Isa. 11:10), something Jesus explicitly reaffirms after his Resurrection in proclaiming the Great Commission to his apostles (Matt. 28:18–20).
More to the point for our consumption, pun intended, what would Jesus says to each of us? Would he exclaim, “How great is your faith!”?
Never Lose Heart
In any event, the persistent Canaanite provides us—who have been given much more than she at the time—with a model example, to never lose heart in our walk with the Lord in his Catholic Church, always seeking strength in the sacraments and the fellowship he’s blessed us with through our friends and family.
God does provide, especially in giving us himself as the bread of life in the Eucharist. Let us never lose heart, but rather respond to our trials by always humbly seeking our Lord, so that we can serve as models for others enduring their own tribulations.
