Unexpected Responses

Two Gospel stories placed side by side reveal a striking contrast about the nature of faith. Peter, one of Jesus' closest disciples with every spiritual advantage, doubted when the storm grew fierce. A Canaanite woman, an outsider with no such advantages, refused to give up and her persistent trust moved Jesus to heal her daughter. Her faith stands as a powerful example of what it looks like to hold on to God regardless of the obstacles. This contrast challenges us to examine our own circles and ask who we have quietly excluded. God's welcome has no such boundaries, and neither should ours. The call is to practice radical hospitality, reaching out to those we might overlook, judge, or dismiss. God is not finished with the people around us, and He is not finished with us either.

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My brothers and sisters in the Lord, the gospel for this Sunday is a beautiful companion to the gospel from last Sunday. In fact, they're almost like two sides of the same coin. If we take a trip back down memory lane, you remember last Sunday we were at the Sea of Galilee. And it wasn't a calm day at the sea, it was a very rough day. There were storms on the Sea of Galilee as the disciples were on the boat. And Jesus begins to walk on the water. He approaches the boat and he encounters Simon Peter. And you remember Peter's exchange with Jesus. Jesus gives Peter a challenge. He challenges Peter to walk on water. And Peter, in the beginning, does walk on water as long as he keeps his focused on Jesus. But as soon as he takes his focus off of Jesus and places it on the storm, the wind and the rain and the waves, he begins to sink. And we know when that happens, the Lord chastises Peter because of his lack of faith, because he didn't keep his eyes upon him. Now, when you think of Peter, I want you to remember this as we compare it to the gospel for this Sunday. Peter is a Jewish male, and that's going to be very important. But not only is Peter a Jewish male, Peter is one of the twelve apostles. Not only is he one of the twelve apostles, he's one of the three that is part of Jesus' inner circle. You remember Peter, James, and John went up the Mount of Transfiguration to see the Lord transfigured, a glimpse of his glory when he was transfigured before him. Peter is also the individual who Jesus says, On this rock I will build my church. Peter was given the keys to the kingdom. Yet Peter doubted Jesus. Let's look at the gospel for this Sunday. This Sunday, we are no longer at the Sea of Galilee, we are on dry land. And Jesus is approached by an individual, this time a woman. And that's important because men and women had very distinct roles in the society in which Jesus lived, very different than from today. But not only was this a woman, the person who came with the request to Jesus was a Canaanite woman. And you need to remember, my dear friends, that the Canaanites were hated by the Jews. Think of the person that irritates you the most in your life, and multiply that by 20. And the Jews still hated the Canaanites even more. They were the enemies of the Jewish people, the outsiders, the foreigners. And it was this woman who was a Canaanite who came to Jesus. And you can see by the reaction of the disciples, send her away, Lord, that there was a disdain for this woman. Jesus, like Peter, he challenges the woman. And he says to the woman, after she makes a request for the healing of her daughter, to cast out this demon. He says to the woman, I cannot take the food that belongs to the children and throw it to the dogs. Now the word that's translated there in English as dogs is a derogatory term. It's a derogatory term that the Jews used to use in reference to the Canaanites. And Jesus says, I can't take the food, the blessings that are meant for the chosen people, and give it to the dogs, the outsiders, the foreigners. But the woman had courage, she had tenacity, and she had faith. And she says to Jesus, even the scraps that fall from the master's table, the dogs eat up. And Jesus looks at her and says, A woman, great is your faith. My brothers and sisters, these two gospels are contrasted, and that Peter, who is the rock of the church, Peter, who has the keys to the kingdom, Peter, who is the Jewish male, ran the big risk of doubt. And he began to sink. While the Canaanite woman, who was the foreigner, the outsider, the enemy, the hated one, she did not walk with Jesus like Peter did. She did not hear all the teachings of Jesus like Peter did. She did not see all the miracles of Jesus like Peter did. Yet she heard about Jesus. She had faith in Jesus. And it shows us, my dear friends, what faith can do. Because nothing is impossible for God. And faith moved mountains in that woman's life. And Jesus commends that type of faith. We also have to remember where this gospel is found. It is written in the Gospel of St. Matthew. Now, who is Matthew? Yes, Matthew was a Jewish male, but Matthew was also a tax collector. And there was only one thing worse than a public sinner. And that is if you worked for the IRS in the time of Jesus, and maybe even now, I don't know. But Matthew was a tax collector. And so Matthew, even though he was a Jewish male, he was hated by the Jewish people because he was considered a traitor. He was a Jew who worked for the Romans. And the way taxes were collected in the time of Jesus is that the Romans gave Matthew a census, a tally of how much tax to collect for them. And Matthew could collect as much taxes as he could squeeze out of people, the rest he could keep for himself. So he was a tax collector and he was a cheat and he was a thief. And he was also a traitor because he worked for the Roman government. Yet Matthew tells of this encounter with the Canaanite woman because Matthew, who was sitting at the tax collector's post, was also one who was called by Jesus to leave his old life behind and to follow him to become an apostle. And I'm sure that when Jesus called Matthew, the other disciples said to Jesus, Lord, do you know who you are calling? I mean, we're only simple fishermen, but that's a tax collector. But nothing is impossible for those who have faith. And Matthew left his post and he followed Jesus. My dear friends, we see the contrast between these two gospels. From Peter to the Canaanite woman. The difference between risks, the difference between the risk of doubt and the importance of faith. But we also notice something that's also very important here, and that is this. Now many of you may say, well, I know that Father. I believe that. But do you really believe that? Do you really believe that Jesus loves people who are different than you and different than I? Because oftentimes, my dear friends, we set up boxes around God. About what God can do in people's lives. And oftentimes we set up circles in our own life, our own circle of who's inside our circle and who's outside our circle. But with God, there's only one circle. But with us, we have our own circle that's oftentimes and usually much smaller than God's. And when it comes to different individuals, rather than seeing what's inside of the heart, we look at externals. And based upon those externals, we make a judgment. That cannot be a disciple of Jesus. That cannot be a follower of Jesus. That person cannot have great faith. Because it is the externals that I have judged because of my circle. And so we exclude people. But the Lord doesn't. Jesus, throughout the Gospels, is one who practices radical hospitality. Jesus practices radical welcome. Who does Jesus hang around with? He goes and eats with tax collectors and sinners and prostitutes and the riffrath. Not to sin with them, not to condone their sin, but because he has to encounter them in order to change their lives. And we're called to do the same thing. To step outside of our circles. Because God loves people that are very different than us, that are at a different stage in their walk in discipleship and then their walk of faith. We hear in our first reading from the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah talks about God's embrace for the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord. Those who are considered outside of the circle. And Isaiah says that the Lord notes that his house will be a house of prayer for all of God's people, no matter where they are in their stage of spiritual growth or development. You see, my dear friends, who is in your circle? Today, we could also call it a click. Who is in your circle? Who is in your click? And who do you exclude from the kingdom? Because you and I are not willing to offer the radical hospitality of the Lord, to step out on faith. Because in the journey of life, my dear friends, it's easy to exclude. And there's probably been times in our life when we've been excluded from the circles that other people have set up. We see it in the lives of the saints. This month we celebrated the feast day of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, better known as Saint Edith Stein. Edith Stein was born a Jew. Then she became an atheist. She didn't believe in God. She had nothing, she didn't want anything to do with God. Then she converted to Catholicism. Then she became a nun. And then she lost her life in a Nazi concentration camp. In all of those stages, my dear friends, she would have been considered outside of someone's circle. Born a Jew outside of someone's circle, became an agnostic outside of someone's circle, became a Catholic outside of someone's circle, went into religious life outside of someone's circle. But God wasn't finished with her. And he's not finished with any of us. My dear friends, do we have the faith of the Canaanite woman? And with that kind of faith, are we willing to step outside of our circle, whatever that might look like, to expand it so that we can extend the radical hospitality of God. The invitation of welcome to all God's people, so that all of us, my dear friends, and all those who are seeking and searching, may experience the radical welcome of the Lord. It's the mission of all of us, my dear friends, who call ourselves disciples. Do we have that kind of faith? The faith of that Canaanite woman, even when she was despised and hated and considered an enemy. Or do we fall back on our doubt, not trusting that God isn't finished with any of us yet? Amen.