Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Entrance Antiphon Ps 70 (69): 2, 6 O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me! You are my rescuer, my help; O Lord, do not delay.

Collect Draw near to your servants, O Lord, and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness, that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide, you may restore what you have created and keep safe what you have restored. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Jeremiah 31:1-7; Psalm: Jeremiah 31; Matthew 15:21-28

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession. Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us. He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. The woman came and knelt before him. Lord, help me! she said. He replied, It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs. Yes, Lord, she said, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered, Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (Matthew 15:21-28)

Christ’s Silence There is in our Gospel passage today a detail that is very striking. A poor, distracted, desperate pagan woman, hearing that the prophet Jesus was in her vicinity, pursued him with her cries. Her daughter was suffering terribly from a demon within her. Nothing could be done and without supernatural aid, she had a terrible prospect ahead of her. Jesus of Nazareth was her only hope, and she would not give up. Had he not acceded to her request then, she may well have kept pursuing him. But Christ refused so much as to answer her. All was silent, except for her appeals. Had we not known the sequel, Christ’s silence would seem mysterious. It would have seemed that in the face of this evil, he had done nothing — and there is an old saying that evil flourishes when good people do nothing. Of course, we know what happened — Christ granted her persistent request, seeing her “great faith.” In view of this and of his teaching elsewhere that our prayers will be answered, we know that God responds to the prayer of petition, even if in ways the petitioner does not notice or understand. But this temporary silence of Christ before the pagan woman surely reminds us of what may seem to be the silence of God across the world, a world full of error, suffering and disarray. The world of nature and of man seems to proceed and develop according to its own laws, giving little evidence of any special choice and help by the Creator and Ruler of all. For instance, during God’s long and special choice of his people culminating in the Incarnation, on the other side of the world Aboriginal tribes were eking out their precarious existence in the deserts, the bushlands and the coasts of Australia. They celebrated the Dreaming according to notions that were far from what God was choosing to reveal to his chosen people. Their lives were needy, short and precarious. The temporary silence of God before the pagan woman reminds us of his seeming silence before the peoples.

The question is, does the apparent silence of God before some (and not of others) indicate neglect of them? There is no doubt that God has engaged greatly with some, and has seemed to be silent before others. For instance, no one has been endowed with such spiritual gifts and dignity as has Mary the mother of Christ. He looked on his lowly handmaid, chose her, while he seemed silent with others. There are differences everywhere, which might seem — only seem! — that God speaks to some and is silent with others. But of course, God would hardly deal with everyone and everything in exactly the same way. In the angelic world there are great differences in endowments and status before God. Ought therefore the least endowed angel feel that God has been silent with him? Throughout visible creation there are vast and ascending grades of quality, beauty and being — and Aquinas even sees in this a fourth great Way to God. Within mankind, God has arranged a variety of gifts and abilities. One member of the family shows signs of musical genius, while another has an early breakdown and for the rest of his life does not attain an even mediocre achievement. Religions too, vary in nobility, as does the philosophical thought of various peoples. Everywhere it might seem that God regards one and not the other. Christ spends himself on the lost sheep of the House of Israel, and is silent before the cries of the pagan woman. Why was Christ silent? There is a saying, attributed to William Norman Ewer (1885 - 1976), “How odd of God to choose the Jews!” Whatever Ewer may have meant by it, it illustrates the sovereignly free choice of God in implementing his saving plan. As John the Baptist said when told that all were now going to Jesus, “A man can receive nothing except what is given to him from heaven” (John 3: 27). So the fortunes of the peoples vary, but all is in the hand of the all-loving, all-powerful and all-wise God who has revealed himself to be Father to all mankind. He leads his children in ways inscrutable, including those before whom he seems to be silent. He engaged openly with his chosen people, and in manner veiled with the Australian Aborigines.

God may appear to be silent, just as our Lord was at least temporarily silent before the pleas of the pagan woman (Matthew 15:21-28). But God our Father has all of us in hand — in his own hand — and he is working in ways that may appear evident only long afterwards. Let us pray to Christ for his light and his grace, and let us pray that this light and grace will be brought to all men. Especially and most of all, God has sent his Son who has redeemed the world. Our task is to bring the Redeemer to all men, trusting that in the meantime, God is working to bring all his children to him.

(E.J.Tyler)

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