The Woman Of Faith

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Wednesday of 18th Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1, August 4th, 2021
Texts: Num. 13: 1-2.25-14:1.26-29.34-35; Ps.106:6-7ab.13-14.21-23; Mtt. 15:21-28
Jesus' answers in today's gospel reading could be treated as absolute as well as functional. As absolute it means that it reflects the truth about His mission. In the plan of God, the people of Israel were to be the light to other nations and salt of the earth so that through them other nations would know God and come to Him. Jesus Christ came to fulfil this plan of God. Jesus' answer to the woman was not to slight her but to tell her that she was not entitled to the favour. Jesus' answer would have reminded the woman of the long standing social and religious disparity between the Jews and Gentiles. In the religious milieu of the time, considering the attitudinal relation between the Jewish and Gentiles, the woman could easily understand with Jesus. The woman needed to let go her ill feeling towards the Jews to get what she wanted; she had to accept their claim of superiority to meet her need. She humbled herself to accept their claim of superiority. Accepting the superiority of the Jews means accepting the truth about their God as taught by Jesus Christ. She did all this in conviction that God worked in Jesus Christ. By her patience and humility, she demonstrated her faith in Jesus Christ. Hence, Jesus said, _“O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you desire.”_ She was really a woman of faith.
We learn from the woman that faith manifests in deeds. This brings to mind the words of St. James: Faith without deeds is dead, show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by my deeds (2:17-18). The woman justify her faith by her deeds and she met her needs. This tells us that there is no faith without living by the gospel. Faith without living by the gospel is useless and ineffective. Put differently, it is dead. Our faith grows as we live by the gospel.
We also see in the woman what faith can achieve for us. With faith we win God's good pleasure. Faith helps us to swim successfully against the odds. The woman swam against the odds triumphantly. By faith she got what she was not entitled to. This affirms that faith makes us worthy to share from the inheritance of God's people. Hence, by faith we are incorporated into the people of God and become heirs to their spiritual wealth. This revealed in advance how Jesus would save the whole world and make them the children of God. We are all children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
The answers are functional in the sense that they are meant to teach us certain truth. In the case of today's gospel reading, we could see a moral truth. Jesus teaches us to be focused and avoid distractions at all cost. Though Jesus had a primary mission to the Jews to fulfil the plan of God, He was not restrained from saving souls aside Jews. He healed the servant of the Roman centurion; he was not a Jew (Mtt. 8:5-13). By His answers, Jesus teaches us to pay attention to our primary responsibility and not to derail unnecessarily. Other thing could take our time only when it is necessary and worths it.
Today's first reading reminds us of something important: our attitudes towards the mission of God. God called Abraham to live his father's land and promised to give him the land of Canaan. In fulfilment of His promise, God was leading the people to possesss the land but the people refused to cooperate with God's grace. They forgot that the battle belonged to God, not to them. If they had understood that it was God who had been fighting for them, they would have held their peace. In this regard, today's psalm is very instructive: _"But they soon forgot his deeds, and would not wait upon his counsel. They yielded to their cravings in the desert, and put God to the test in the wilderness. They forgot the God who was their saviour, who had done such great things in Egypt, such wonders in the land of Ham, such marvels at the Red Sea."_
God's mission is salvation of souls. Many a time we fail to cooperate with God’s grace to save our souls. We fail to face the battle against the desires of the flesh; we fail to face the battle against external pressure- pressure from friends, pressure from family, pressure from work. We fear we might be called old school if we take our faith seriously; we fear we might lose friends, we fear we might be lonely etc. We also fail to face the battle of allurement of life. We run away from all these battles as if the battles belong to us. Unless we face the battle, salvation remains an illusion.
We learn today, in the first reading, that we should stop lamenting our limitations but look up to God who has always been for us to save us. When the people began to lament their limitations, God said, _"As I live, says the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; of all your number,  numbered from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured  against  me. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for everyday a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure."_ If we continue to say we are unable, then we will remain unable. Let us learn to trust in God and stop lamenting.

Lord our God, help us to live life worthy of our faith in You. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke