patient, gentle, humble, and meek to name but a few. Less often will people speak

Transcription

1 Homily for 20 th Sunday of OT, Year A: Mt 15:21-28 When asked to list the qualities that people typically associate with Jesus Christ, you will hear such words as compassionate, merciful, forgiving, loving, patient, gentle, humble, and meek to name but a few. Less often will people speak of Jesus as stern, harsh, or judgmental. Yet it is a rather stern Christ that the Canaanite woman met when she begged him to heal her possessed child. This woman came from Phoenicia, a region north of Israel where the population was predominately pagan. Jesus had exorcised countless people but he ignores the plea to set this child free from Satan. His reason for doing so is clear and he is not prepared to deviate from his mission: He was sent to the Children of Israel and to them alone and when the woman begs him to reconsider he very bluntly though indirectly calls her, her child and her people dogs, as Jews typically did when speaking of gentiles. The apostles understandably want to resolve this situation by sending the woman away to stop her from getting more hysterical. Yet she perseveres and in a spirit of humility admits yes Lord we are not among your people and do not deserve your mercy but Lord reconsider and set my child free! And it is in her humility that Jesus sees the gift of faith within her, a gift that His heavenly Father had placed in her to know the Jesus is the conqueror of sin and the devil. And for

2 her faith he consents to deviate from his mission to reach out to heal a gentile child and in doing so shows that the time of liberation of the entire gentile world from the darkness of paganism and the devil was soon to begin! Isaiah had prophesied this spiritual liberation of the gentiles many years before, when they would worship God in his temple, though not the one in Jerusalem but the true temple, Jesus Christ, and his invitation to bring all nations into His Church. And the People of Israel would have been shocked by Isaiah s prophecy that one day they would worship God alongside gentiles. So too it was it difficult for the Jewish Christians who listened to or read the letters of St. Paul to accept the mission the apostle had been given to evangelize the gentiles and bring them into the one family of God, the Holy Catholic Church. For not so long they had looked with contempt on their gentile neighbours, but the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost helped the Church realize that Christ s gift of salvation was now to be offered to all, and so those who once were enemies were now to be invited to become brothers and sisters in the Lord! And so it continues to this day that the Church continues to the difficult task of dialoguing and evangelizing to those who are not Christians and fellow Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church.

3 Sadly, in our own times there are two erroneous approaches to this dialogue. One is to say that all religions are equal, it does not matter what you believe as long as believe in something and are a good person; that is all that is required of you in this life to be saved and go to heaven. The other is to suggest is that if you are not Catholic, then you are an inherently evil person and salvation is an impossibility for you. Catholic teaching is much more nuanced and balanced. The Vatican II documents on the Church and Ecumenism teaches us that: For it is through Christ s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. (UR 3) And also that Christ founded only one Church on Peter, with the guarantee of indefectibility in the face of the persecutions, divisions and obstacles of every kind which she would encounter in the course of history (cf. Mt 16:18). Therefore, only one Church exists, which we confess, in the Creed as "one, holy, Catholic and apostolic" (LG 8). This means that it is false to say all religions are equal and as long as you are good and loving you will be saved; such is impossible without Christ and the Church. However, we also believe that many elements of sanctification and truth can be found outside [the Church s] structure (LG 8) in various Christian

4 communities, and we know there is much good and elements of the truth in other religions (NA 2) that give us opportunities to dialogue with non- Christians and fellow Christians. At times it seems that this dialogue is futile. The recent atrocities of jihadists in Iraq and Syria show that despite our efforts to dialogue many are simply bent on the eradication of another s religion besides their own. But this should not lead us to think dialogue is always a losing endeavour. Popes Benedict and Francis are two wonderful examples of how fruitful dialogue can be in the life of the Church, most notably with fellow Christians. One of greatest gifts that Pope Benedict left our Church was his willingness to welcome thousands of Anglicans into the Catholic Church. Many Anglican communities were disillusioned by the path their church was taking in compromising biblical teachings by blessing same- sex marriages and admitting women to become priests and bishops to name but a few. They petitioned Pope Benedict to become Catholics but asked they be able to retain many of their traditions such as the way Mass is celebrated in their communities. Pope Benedict welcomed them into the Catholic Church and in our

5 own diocese 4 Anglican ministers have become Catholic priests and the majority of the parish of St. John the Evangelist in Calgary entered the Catholic Church. They are a thriving and welcoming community which I would recommend you visit if you are ever in the Inglewood part of the city. These Anglicans converts and others realized that while they believed much of what Catholic Church teaches they were missing essential elements of the Catholic faith and so made the bold step to enter the Catholic Church despite opposition for doing so. But through their courage they and hopefully many others have now found a welcoming home in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis in the past weeks as surprised many by his dialogues with evangelical communities and even issued a public apology for times that Catholics have persecuted evangelicals. In return and sadly not reported by many news outlets, a prominent evangelical leader offered an apology in turn for times that evangelicals have persecuted Catholics. That such a dialogue and mutual act of forgiveness would be exchanged in our own time was unthinkable to many, but Our Holy Father has reached out to evangelicals as he sees the gospel alive in their communities and knows that their love for Christ is sincere and something we Catholics can learn from.

6 It does not appear that Catholics and Evangelicals will be reunited in full communion anytime soon, there is still much that needs to be done for such a wondrous event to occur, but the channels of dialogue are open and we should not be afraid to take the Pope s lead to reach out, pray with and learn from our evangelical brothers and sisters, especially those who may have personally hurt us in the past. Though our Lord was once cold towards a gentile woman and her child in need, his pierced heart now continues to flood the world with an endless ocean of mercy, reaching out to all peoples to embrace the gift of salvation through him and his Church, and to dialogue with men and women of good will who are seeking the fullness of truth, hopefully finding it one day in the Lord and His Church.