Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you,” God says, through the prophet Jeremiah, to ancient Israel and to each of us. With an age-old love . . . I’m captivated by these poetic and profound words from the heart of Divine Love to us. God’s eternal, unconditional, boundless love flows from the circle dance of love that is the Holy Trinity to every human soul. This age-old love and mercy are what drew the Canaanite woman to Jesus in our Gospel account. Let it draw you and your loved ones today to the very heart of God.
The prophet Jeremiah spoke words of hope to the exiled people of God. God wooed them back with the age-old love toward repentance, restoration, and the rebuilding of their lives. God’s eternal desire was always their deliverance; the purpose of exile was to call people to return to God. God called Israel to a new day of abundance, of celebration, of true worship and praise. Our psalm, too, is from Jeremiah 31, with powerful imagery of God as our shepherd who gathers the scattered sheep. We who have been ransomed by the Lord are those who are gathered and guarded, whose mourning turns to joy, who become exuberant worshippers. May we today have ears to hear this same summons, calling us from the same age-old love.
The Canaanite woman was not a Jew, but she recognized her Messiah, calling to him in very Jewish address, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!” At first glance, Christ’s response to the woman might appear harsh, rude, or exclusive. But we must remember that Jesus is only and always divine love personified. Reflecting on this text through the lens of love, I see Jesus meeting her with theological depth because of her true faith. Jesus asserts his mission – preaching the Good News of the Kingdom to the lost sheep of Israel. That mission, as St Paul would later proclaim and teach so boldly, was always for the Gentiles, too, it was just a matter of strategic timing. Jesus playfully tells the woman, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” The word for “dogs” in the original language is better translated “puppies.” Our Lord is not calling her a dog! I think what he might have been implying is that children were fed in one way (at the table) and the puppies would get their food, too, but just in another way at another time. (He didn’t say the puppies should starve or go without.) But the woman, so brilliantly, so beautifully, so boldly, declares to Jesus, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” The puppies find a way to receive their share of the good food. And it only takes a scrap of divine love to feed, nourish, and satisfy them – indeed to heal them. This woman had the faith to believe that even a scrap of divine love would heal her daughter. Jesus revealed to her the truth that she already knew and believed by indeed healing her daughter.
“With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you,” says the Holy Trinity of Love to you today. Will you believe that even a scrap of it is enough for you? Will you believe that even a scrap is enough for your loved ones who need healing today, who need conversion, or comfort, or conviction? The extraordinary thing is that even though a scrap of love, mercy, or grace is enough, God pours it all out in lavish abundance upon us every day! Each day God’s love washes over us and flows through us simply because God delights in us, the beloved. Each day we are invited to a feast of love at the banquet table of the Eucharist. Through the Paschal Mystery we have gained access to the immeasurable abundance of Trinitarian love. Let us approach God in faith today as the Canaanite woman did, expecting to receive love and mercy. Let us come expectant, in full faith, for ourselves and for our loved ones and for our every neighbor. We each have needs today. We each have situations in our lives that seem impossible to resolve or overcome. Let us trust today like we never have before in the possibilities that only extravagant, divine love can accomplish. Let us run to Jesus just like the Canaanite woman in full faith and confidence! Amen and amen!
Elizabeth Wells