What A Year! It’s been quite a year for everyone; the pandemic has changed everything for us. The ultimate question that we truly can ask this year is: ‘Did the corona virus change me? Did it increase my faith in Jesus of Nazareth? Did it change the way I see the world, the way I see others, the way I see myself? Did it change my relationship with God for the better?
Today’s reading (Sunday) is really about faith. It’s about a woman who was determined to encounter Jesus and to ask His help for her daughter. The Canaanite woman is indeed a model of faith for our time and for all times.
What is this faith that the Canaanite woman models for us? Fr. Terence Klein, a Jesuit Priest puts it this way: “Faith is an experience of God. Faith happens whenever YOU BECOME AWARE THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONE, that another who is not of this world is nonetheless in front of you.”
That ‘another’ is Jesus. The woman has only heard about Jesus, yet she is sure that God has entered her life in the person of Jesus. Her resolution, the risk she took to meet Jesus was not in vain. Her daughter was healed! ‘O Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish’ (Matt 15:28).
When we leave our homes every Sunday to attend Mass, as we enter through the doors of the Church and as we approach the altar, we are like the Canaanite woman. We come with something: maybe we bring to Jesus someone who is finding life difficult, maybe it is our failing health we bring to Him, maybe our heart is not in a good place, maybe we are really suffering at this time, maybe a loved one is suffering and we desire to help but we don’t know how and sometimes we seem helpless, whatever it may be, our coming (to Jesus at Mass) is a great expression of our faith in the living God WHO IS IN FRONT OF US and ever ready to help us.
At every Mass, may we also hear Jesus say to us: ‘O beloved friend, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish.’ Amen!
May this year, this difficult year, increase our faith in Jesus!
I’m thinking of you and praying for you. Please pray for me, too. May we never tire of praying for one another.
Thank you! God bless. ~ Fr. Obi