“O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you desire” (Matthew 15:27 ).
An Interruption
In today’s Gospel, Matthew tells of the Canaanite woman whose daughter is tormented by a demon. She begs for help, and Jesus refuses. This woman is an interruption to his day and his mission. His cousin has been beheaded. He’s been rejected by his hometown and religious leaders. He wants to be alone, to pray and rest, yet this woman will not leave him alone. She is a nuisance, someone to be dismissed.
Unworthy
In our English interpretation, Jesus compares her to, even calling her, a dog. We are appalled, wondering how the Son of God could call her a dog, someone less than human. In Jesus’s day, Non-Jews were called ‘dogs,’ unclean and unworthy of God’s promises. In telling Jesus that “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matthew 15:26-28), the woman reminds us that Jesus’s mission is to bring everyone to God.
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