SPEAKER_00: Today in the first reading we hear the Lord say with an everlasting love, I have loved you.
SPEAKER_00: Those are some beautiful words.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't simply say I love you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I have loved you.
SPEAKER_00: Long before you were born, before you ever prayed, before you ever succeeded in anything, before you even sinned, God loved you.
SPEAKER_00: His love always comes first.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the greatest truths of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: We don't earn God's love.
SPEAKER_00: We respond to it.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah is speaking to a people who had experienced exile, suffering, and disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: They probably wondered if God had abandoned them.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, God tells them, I'm gonna restore you, I'm going to rebuild you.
SPEAKER_00: You will dance again.
SPEAKER_00: You see, that's how God speaks.
SPEAKER_00: Sees beyond the wound to the restoration, sees beyond the exile to the homecoming.
SPEAKER_00: Then we come to a surprising encounter in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: A Canaanite woman approaches Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now we have to appreciate what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: She's not Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: She belonged to a people who had been enemies of Israel for centuries, and in the eyes of many she was an outsider.
SPEAKER_00: Yet she comes to Jesus with one desperate prayer, Lord help me.
SPEAKER_00: Three words.
SPEAKER_00: No long speech, no theological argument, just faith.
SPEAKER_00: At first Jesus seems to ignore her.
SPEAKER_00: Then his response almost shocks us.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because Jesus is drawing something extraordinary out of her.
SPEAKER_00: Every answer she gives reveals a deeper faith.
SPEAKER_00: And finally she says, even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master's table.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus responds with words, he speaks to very few people in the gospels.
SPEAKER_00: He says, O woman, great is your faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Because many of the religious leaders had knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Many of the disciples had proximity, but this woman had faith.
SPEAKER_00: And faith opened the door to God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we think our greatest obstacle is our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
SPEAKER_00: Our greatest obstacle is giving up too soon.
SPEAKER_00: This woman refused to give up.
SPEAKER_00: She refused to walk away.
SPEAKER_00: She kept asking.
SPEAKER_00: She kept trusting.
SPEAKER_00: She kept believing.
SPEAKER_00: That's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Not because we convince God, but because prayer changed us.
SPEAKER_00: Today the church also celebrates, at least as an optional memorial, the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Probably one of the most beautiful churches in the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's the oldest church in the West dedicated to Our Lady, built after the Council of Ephesus in four hundred thirty one, proclaiming Mary as the Theotokos, the mother of God.
SPEAKER_00: According to an ancient tradition, Our Lady appeared in a dream to Pope Liberius and to a Roman nobleman, asking that a church be built where snow would miraculously fall.
SPEAKER_00: So on the morning of August 5th, think about that.
SPEAKER_00: August 5th, in the middle of the Roman summer, snow is said to have covered the hill, marking the place where the basilica was to be built.
SPEAKER_00: Whether one focuses on the historical tradition or simply on the enduring significance of this major basilica, the message is the same.
SPEAKER_00: Mary always leads people to her son.
SPEAKER_00: And just as the Canaanite woman discovered that God's mercy reaches beyond every human boundary, Saint Mary Major has stood for over sixteen centuries as a reminder that the church opens her doors to the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: People from every nation, every language, every culture have knelt before the altar seeking the same thing, the mercy of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps that's the lesson for us today.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we think we're too far from God, too broken, too sinful, too forgotten.
SPEAKER_00: The Canaanite woman tells us differently.
SPEAKER_00: Keep asking.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah would tell us God's love is everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: Our lady would simply point to her son and say, Go to him, go to him always.
SPEAKER_00: So whatever burden you brought to Mass today, make the Canaanite woman's prayer your own.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the shortest prayers in the Bible, and probably one of the most powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Lord help me.
SPEAKER_00: If those are words are spoken with faith, they'll never go unheard.
SPEAKER_00: Because the God who loved us with an everlasting love is still listening, still restoring, and still working miracles today.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.