HOMILY SUNDAY 20 – A
Check That Attitude
(Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Psalm 67; Romans 11:13-15; 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28)
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A pious man complained to a rabbi that after years of praying and laboring long and hard for the Lord, he realized he was still just an ordinary man. The rabbi replied that the realization he was just an ordinary man, in itself, was a worthy accomplishment.
Be aware of negative attitudes and actions in our lives, and be ready to let go and let God.
The reading from Isaiah for today’s mass is a remarkable passage for an Old Testament reading. There are two patterns contained within it, one referring to the elitist Jews, and the other to the despised Gentiles.
In this reading, Isaiah asserts that if Israel maintains justice and does what is right, salvation would come to them and deliverance would be revealed to them. There is a challenge to the Jews here to be more just and caring to the Gentiles.
Regarding the Gentiles, Isaiah asserts that if they join themselves to the Lord, minister to God, love the name of the Lord, become his servants, keep the Sabbath, use no profanity and hold fast to the covenant, then God would bring them to the holy mountain and make them joyful in God’s house of prayer. There is in this passage an equality with the Jews, and an inclusiveness of the Gentiles, that must have shocked Isaiah’s hearers. No wonder they tended to dismiss the prophets as troublemakers and paid little attention to them. To them what Isaiah was communicating was outlandish and not to be taken seriously.
This reading from Isaiah neatly sets up the context for the Gospel in which Jesus goes away to Gentile territory, crosses borders and encounters a Gentile woman who, out of great love and concern for her child, earnestly shouts to him to save her child. Interestingly, Jesus does not respond to the title “Son of David”, which is more proper to the Jews. He does respond to the more universal title “Lord”, however, then tests her faith by asserting that he was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. Undeterred, her response revealed her genuine faith in Jesus; she knelt before him and a miracle ensues on Gentile territory. That would be shocking to the Jews, but not to Isaiah, who would probably simply say, “I told you so.”
Mother and child at San Cristobal, Chaipas, Mexico
The reality at the time of Jesus was that society, religion and culture were totally divided, marked off, delineated, dualistic, either/or and clear as to who was in and who was out. True to the prophetic spirit of Isaiah, Jesus by his words and actions, overturned all that centuries-old tendency that set up lifestyles of separateness, because of God’s plan to overcome all divisions and have one house of prayer for all people, Jew and Gentile.
The psalm response, also from the Old Testament, provides support for the stance taken by Isaiah: “Let the people praise the Lord; let all the nations praise God.” That refrains works its way through so many psalms that one would think the Jewish people should have had a better idea than they seemed to have had at the time of Isaiah, and even during the time of Jesus, about God’s plan for a unified humanity. However, the power of feeling special, superior, above the other, better than, is very seductive and the Jewish people fell for that temptation hook, line and sinker, over and over again. Unfortunately, most major religions of the world are still stuck in that mentality, which is an underlying cause for much misery in the world and violence carried out even in the name of religion.
The Spirit of Jesus given to us is a spirit of unity and oneness. The Church is a universal Church, the Body of Christ, larger than the visible Roman Catholic Church. The readings are all about faith in Jesus and working for unity. Both the ecumenical movement and the efforts at inter-faith dialogue are important here and need to be further developed and carried into the future.
We have to always be on guard against creeping separateness, feelings of superiority, being better than the other. The reality of divisions in our lives and communities is all too real. The word “division” comes from the Greek word “diablos” which means “devil” so any spirit of division that negatively affects a group is actually diabolical. Divisions are learned behaviour: children are colour blind, and develop these negative attitudes by picking them up from adults, their families, society and cultures.
One particular Catholic French community can serve as an example of this pervasive dark tendency. Two families were aligned against the other families. They saw themselves as more French, more Catholic and more perfect than all the rest, especially a few Métis families in the area. Socialization with “the others” by their young people was discouraged. A youth dance one night was interrupted by the fathers of these two families who came over, slightly intoxicated, to stop the music and remove their daughters from the hall, because of the danger of their associating with the others. Yet they would be in Church on Sunday, going to communion, with no apparent ability to see how anti-Gospel their actions and attitudes had been. It is precisely these kinds of attitudes that both Isaiah and Jesus are addressing in today’s readings.
The Eucharist that we celebrate today is a great leveller – here there is no one greater or smaller, more important or less important than anyone else. We all come to the Table of the Lord’s Word and Body and Blood as sinners in need of God’s mercy and healing. And here we will find it if we have the right dispositions to see ourselves as we are, to repent and to receive that forgiveness and healing.
So, in the end let us be aware of negative attitudes and actions in our lives, and be ready to let go and let God work in our lives.
