In today’s Gospel a Gentile woman calls out to Jesus asking Him to heal her daughter of a demon. At first, He ignores her, telling the apostles He was sent by God to help Israelites. But the woman does not give up. She continues to pay homage to Jesus and beg for His mercy. When Jesus sees the depth of the woman’s faith, He cures the daughter at the very moment. Bible scholars compare this story in Matthew’s Gospel to his earlier account of “The Healing of a Centurion’s servant.” (Mt. 8: 5-13) In that gospel story a military commander, despite being a despised outsider, pleads with Jesus to save his
beloved servant and “at that very hour” the servant is healed. In both these stories, Jesus breaks with His usual procedure of ministering only to the Israelites. Jesus recognizes the depth of faith of these Gentiles and extends His mercy to their needs. It would be easy to question why our loving Jesus initially turns them away before finally extending His healing mercy. But perhaps He wants to make the point that to God it is not one’s background, (racial, ethnicity, political, etc.) that is important. Rather, it is the depth of one’s faith in Jesus that matters. These stories occurred early in His ministry, and He was demonstrating to the disciples and the Jewish people His divinity. It was because of the deep faith of the Centurion and the Canaanite woman that their prayers were answered. Our prayers too will be answered if our faith is deep, and our prayers are persistent! The answer may not come in the way we expect or the time frame we want but He will always answer. His plan for us always comes from His perfect love that wills only the best for each of us.