A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 15: 21-28)
At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”
The woman in today’s Gospel comes to Jesus seeking healing for her daughter. Matthew describes how Jesus says nothing to her on her first request. The disciples ask Jesus to send her away, but she persists in calling out to him. As a Canaanite, she is an outsider, not one of “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Jesus says to her in reply: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” But the woman says to him, “Lord, help me.” And then Jesus says, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was immediately healed. Jesus came to heal and heals still regardless of nationality or background. The woman’s faith is an example of trust in God’s mercy.
Lord, help me. Let the words of the Canaanite woman be my prayer today. Help me seek to make my will conform to yours. In trust and persistence, let me come to you for what I need with childlike faith. Help me see you, know you, and follow you, and let me be free from any fixed conceptions of you that would keep me from asking even for little things. You alone are God; you alone know what I need.
From the responsorial psalm: “Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.” Lord, hear my prayer today; in persisting, let me hear your voice.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.