Homily Ordinary 20A: All are invited to the Lord’s Mountain!

Homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2017 

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

Introduction 

A story is told of Protestant man who was the only non-Catholic in a rural town.  When he died, of course he could not be buried in a Catholic cemetery; that is how things were done in those days.  Out of consideration, however, the Catholic pastor allowed him to be buried right outside the fence of the Catholic cemetery. 

A few years later, the daughter of this man returned home and of course she went to put some flowers at her dad’s grave, whose location outside the fence she remembered very well.  To her great dismay, she could not find the grave. 

Very angry, she stormed into the rectory and gave the pastor a piece of her mind.  “Not only did you refuse to bury my father in the cemetery,” she told him, “but even in death you dishonour him by destroying his grave?”  She went on and on, for quite a while, about all that is wrong with the Catholic Church. 

Finally when she was done, the priest told her: “We did not move the grave of your father; we moved the fence of the cemetery, to include your father’s grave.” 

Scripture and Theology 

The question of inclusion and exclusion, "who is inside" and "who is outside," "us" vs "them" is not just a problem in our country today as recent events have shown, but has troubled Christians and even our Jewish ancestors in the faith.

In today’s first reading, Isaiah wrestles with this problem.  This passage is set after the exile of the Jewish people, when the inter-mingling of the Jews and the foreigners was increasing.  And so the Jews were asking themselves: "does God really accept the sacrifices and prayers of these foreigners?" 

Isaiah answers this question, first by laying down the minimum conditions which foreigners who wish to worship in the temple must fulfil: They must observe the Sabbath and they must obey God's commandments that applied to them.  If the foreigners kept these conditions, they would prove that they have faith in God.  And having faith in God is the basic criterion for inclusion among the people God calls his own, whether one is Jewish or not.  And that is why at the end of the reading God says: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” 

In the gospel Jesus deals with the same problem.  He is a Jewish Rabbi, trying to reform his society so that they could be more faithful to God.  Should he give this message of salvation and work his miracles among non-Jews as well?  For the woman in the gospel was a Canaanite, one of the many pagan neighbours of the Jews.  Should he help her and cure her daughter? 

On the surface of it, the dialogue in the gospel story might suggest that Jesus does not want to share the Good News with non-Jews.  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” he says.  But clearly from reading the whole New Testament and even from this passage itself, we know that the issue is more complicated.  Jesus say these things to give the Canaanite woman a chance to argue her case.  And indeed she is up to the challenge. 

First, she tells Jesus that if scraps are good enough for the dogs, Jesus too must have some left-overs in his treasury for the non-Jews.  But most important of all, by her perseverance, and by her recognition of Jesus as Lord, she possesses the essential condition that Isaiah had indicated: faith.  That is why Jesus says to her: “O woman, great is your faith.  Let it be done for you as you wish.”  And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour. 

Christian Life 

Like the Jewish people might we, like the disciples of Jesus were, also be tempted had to say "Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us." 

• We might say this to immigrants and refugees, and generally anybody not born in this country or does not speak like we do. 
• Even among those born in this country, if they belong to a race different from ours we may ask: "do they have equal right to a place in our society?" 
• "Send her away" we might say to the Protestants, those Baptists, Lutherans, Mormons, wondering if we should even be talking to them?" 
• Perhaps we are most dismissive of the non-Christians, Jews, Muslims and heathens, wondering, "what chance do they have of getting to heaven?"  

During a visit to Uganda, my home country recently, I came face to face with some of these questions.  Some Muslim family friends had lost their adult son in a motor accident, a few months before and I went to pay them my condolences.   

My family has known the Musa family for the past thirty years.  They used to run a convenience store and often my mother had to get food from their store on credit and then pay up at the end of the month, a favour they accorded us for years.  And during my school holidays, I used to give Math and English tutoring to their daughters: Asina, Asumini and Alima.  That we were Catholic and they were Muslim did not stop us from helping each other out as human beings do. 

Well, that is all good. But now I was sitting in their living room, eating their food as they mourned their son, whose untimely death had hit them hard.  The question running through my head was, should I offer to say a prayer with them or not?  Will they feel offended if I say a Christian prayer or not?  While I was still pondering these questions, the dad, Mr. Idi, said: "Deo, you are a priest.  Why don't you say a prayer for our son and for us?"  And pray I did. I said a spontaneous prayer to God the Father, who they also worship.  I then said the Lord's Prayer, which, to my great surprise, the children joined, perhaps having learnt it from Catholic schools.  And I concluded praying through "Jesus Christ Our Lord," who the Muslims don't believe is God, but honour as a prophet. 

As I was walking back home, I was so grateful to God, for having given me this concrete experience of how people of various religions should relate. 

• I remembered that Christ proclaimed the oneness of the human family.

• I remembered God's words about the "house of prayer for all peoples."

• I remembered that Christ prayed: "May they all be one." 

But don't get me wrong.  A message of inclusion does not mean we give up our mission of evangelization, our zeal in preaching that Jesus is the Saviour of the world.  And that the Church is the sure, certain and ordinary way to heaven. 

As to what happens to those who are not inside the house like us, like the Musas or their dead son, all we can say is we do not know.  But we can hold out the hope, much like Jesus found a way to help this non-Jewish woman, God has ways known only to him of letting them into the house, outside and beyond the ordinary ways known to us.  And this hope is not unfounded; for the God we know is generous and merciful, looking for a mustard seed of faith, a faith that can sometimes be found in those outside the fold. 

Conclusion 

If God offers the citizenship of heaven to all who have faith in him, can we then deny citizenship in our earthly society to some people?  Let us ask ourselves: 

1. Given the recent events in this country, do I knowingly or unknowingly hold prejudices against people who are different from me in any way? 
2. Do I act on those prejudices rather than ask Jesus to heal me of them? 
3. Have I been silent on acts of racism, hate or prejudice against any group? 
4. Have I spoken or acted in ways that denigrate individuals or groups? 

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Let us remember the words God spoke to Isaiah: "The foreigners (the strangers) who join themselves to the LORD . . . I will bring to my holy mountain . . . for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."