by Fr. Edward Foley, Capuchin<\/em><\/p>\n This current digital turn in worship There are obvious downsides to this digital turn Yet there are some advantages here, The old answer was \u201cit depends upon the presider.\u201d An unexpected wrinkle in digital worship is the opportunity A worshipper from afar recently confessed If some at home have already muted me, The other readings have their own revelatory bite to them: So we hear the beginning of a new kind of theologizing The thorny issue of inclusivity also arises in the second reading In an attempt to embarrass his co-religionists But the real mute button should be reserved for the Gospel. One blogger characterizes the Jesus of Matthew 15 as: She continues: So over the years, scholars have tried to clean up this story, Ironically, the woman here makes no confession of faith. Here\u2019s another option to soften Jesus\u2019 words: Or does another suggestion help soften the passage that, As one commentator noted Matthew surprising doesn\u2019t clean up this story She is a Canaanite, not one of Jesus\u2019 people Matthew\u2019s choice of words seems strange and pointed: Yet she seems to know who Jesus is. The disciples don\u2019t want to think about such questions. So a resolute (or stubborn?) Christ She may not be Jewish but she calls out to Jesus She won\u2019t give up. But the feisty woman fighting for her daughter\u2019s life Makes you wonder: So Jesus relents She simply spoke the truth: So Jesus relents \u2026 By and large, the Gospels sidestep The Gospels do depict his humanity and emotional life: He grieves hard over the death of Lazarus at Bethany There is one gospel passage, however, that stands out As recorded both by Mark as well as today\u2019s gospel from Matthew, One can almost imagine Jesus walking away from this encounter And Jesus would counter all of the alpha males in the crowd, \u201cBut,\u201d I imagine Jesus would clarify It is such as these: Canaanite mothers, That struggle, unfortunately, continues yet today In that spirit the prophetess offers this \u201cstubborn blessing\u201d:<\/p>\n Don\u2019t tell me no.<\/em> Don\u2019t start with me.<\/em><\/p>\n I am saying<\/em> I am saying<\/em> Don\u2019t you tell me no. [4]<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n So like the holy one, we dare to [1] See Jack Miles, God: A Biography <\/em>(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), 223-6.<\/p>\n [2] https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/on-scripture-matthew-15-teaching-jesus_b_921497<\/a><\/p>\n [3] https:\/\/liturgy.slu.edu\/20OrdA081620\/theword_cultural.html<\/a><\/p>\n
\nwith live streaming liturgies,
\nonline homilies,
\nand podcast opportunities for spiritual communion
\nhas been an important development for Roman Catholic
\nand other worship congregations.
\nWhile some consider these a stop-gap enterprise,
\nmany understand that these digital outlets
\nwill probably become a permanent part
\nof a congregation\u2019s liturgical life.<\/p>\n
\nand the limited capacity of worshippers
\nto interact with each other,
\nor experience the ambiance of a beloved worship space,
\nor get the full spectrum effect of the music.<\/p>\n
\nas worshippers can livestream the Mass
\nwhenever convenient,
\nadding new complexity to the age-old question:
\n\u201cWhen does the 10:00 a.m. Mass begin?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe new one is \u201cdepends upon when you log in!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nfor worships not only to put Mass on pause
\nfor a whole variety of reasons,
\nbut also to mute particular elements,
\nincluding the homily,
\nif and when it suits them.<\/p>\n
\nthat during live-stream worship she muted one homilist
\nand instead read a commentary on the scriptures.
\nShe reported that this helped keep her blood pressure down.<\/p>\n
\nthen this point is lost on you.
\nBut for the others near and far,
\nI make this point because if ever there was a Sunday
\nwhen I might mute some section of worship,
\nit would not be the homily
\nand certainly not the music.
\nBut instead that very tough, even offensive gospel.<\/p>\n
\nIn the first reading from Isaiah
\nwe hear of the struggle within the Jewish community
\nreturning from Exile
\nto a country increasingly populated with non-Jews.<\/p>\n
\nthat embraces the shocking revelation that all people,
\nand not just the Jews,
\nare invited into the covenant they previously thought
\nwas an exclusive commitment between themselves
\nand the Holy One. [1]<\/p>\n
\nin which Paul, a Jew,
\nreveals himself as the apostle to the Gentiles,
\nthe apostle to the unclean,
\nto the outcasts,
\nto the spiritually lost.
\nEmbarrassingly enough,
\nthis student of the great Jewish teacher Gamaliel,
\nso zealous in honoring God and keeping the law,
\nthe firebrand preacher and rising star,
\nhas been rejected by his own people.<\/p>\n
\nhe turns his energy to non-Jews,
\nhoping that this will stir sufficient jealously
\nand that at least some of them
\nwill eventually embrace the gospel.<\/p>\n
\nThose 8 verses from Matthew
\nbeginning with a Canaanite woman
\ncrying out to Jesus to heal her daughter.
\nBy the end of the story, her daughter has been healed,
\nbut between the crying and the healing,
\nJesus says some profoundly troubling things.<\/p>\n
\narrogant, racist, and just plain mean. <\/em>
\nLanguage that sounds even more inflammatory
\ngiven this post-George Floyd,
\npost-Me Too moment in history.<\/p>\n
\nWe may believe that Jesus was \u201ctruly human,\u201d
\nbut we don\u2019t want him to be too human. [2]<\/p>\n
\nfor example, suggesting that Jesus was testing this woman
\nto see if she had enough faith.
\nWhen she passed the test, Jesus commends her great faith
\nand the daughter is healed.<\/p>\n
\nShe is persistent,
\nrecognizing Jesus as a healer or magician,
\nbut shows no evidence of believing that
\nhe was the son of God. [3]<\/p>\n
\nthe Greek word kunarios<\/em> \u2015 translated as \u201cdogs\u201d
\nreally means \u201clittle dogs\u201d or \u201cpuppies.\u201d
\nSo when Jesus tells the woman,
\n\u201cIt is not fair to take the children\u2019s bread
\nand throw it to the dogs,\u201d he really means puppies.
\nBut does that really help?<\/p>\n
\nbecause this woman submits to Jesus and kneels, Jesus heals her daughter.<\/p>\n
\nA kneeling woman doesn\u2019t have very far to fall.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nand dares to depict a very human Jesus
\nencountering a don\u2019t-mess-with-me mother.<\/p>\n
\non her home turf, and Jesus is outside
\nboth his hood and his comfort zone.<\/p>\n
\nBy Jesus\u2019 time, such people were no longer called Canaanites.
\nMatthew chooses this \u201cancient name\u201d on purpose,
\nsignaling that she is not only the \u201cother,\u201d
\nbut she is identified with an ancient enemy.<\/p>\n
\nShe begs him to heal her daughter tormented by a demon.
\nShe\u2019s desperate and comes out shouting.
\nSome scholars claim that the only women
\nwho spoke to men in public were prostitutes:
\na common ploy of treating people who are different
\nas morally suspect.<\/p>\n
\nThey want nothing to do with her
\n\u201cSend her away!\u201d they tell Jesus.
\nBut Jesus refused.<\/p>\n
\nmeets a resolute and desperate Mother.<\/p>\n
\nin language borrowed from Jewish prayer:
\n\u201cHave mercy on me, Lord, Son of David.\u201d
\nBut Jesus isn\u2019t swayed by the familiar language.
\n\u201cI was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel,\u201d he tells her.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLord, help me,\u201d she begs.
\nThis is where Jesus goes to the dogs:
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not fair to take the children\u2019s food and throw it to dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\npicks up his words and throws them right back at him,
\nfor even the dogs eat the crumbs from their masters\u2019 table.<\/p>\n
\nwas she there in Matthew 14 for the feeding of the multitude?
\nOr did she at least hear about it?
\n12 baskets of fragments left over,
\n5000 men \u2026 not counting women and children?
\nSo, maybe, she reasons,
\nfor a change let\u2019s count the women and children.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWoman, great is your faith!\u201d
\nEven though she hasn\u2019t made any profession of faith,
\nno sign she\u2019s been born again,
\nor even considered being a follower, much less a disciple.<\/p>\n
\nthe children have been fed.
\nThere are baskets of food leftover.
\nSurely there\u2019s enough for my daughter.<\/p>\n
\nand her daughter is healed.<\/p>\n
\nwhat we might call Jesus\u2019 psychological development,
\naside from one telling verse in Luke 2,
\nthat narrates how he went back to Nazareth with his parents
\nwhere he grew<\/em> in wisdom and stature.<\/p>\n
\nwe see him grow tired of crowds,
\nfall asleep from exhaustion,
\ngrow hungry and thirsty,
\nhis emotions boiling over in anger at Pharisees,
\nat money changers, and even at his own disciples.<\/p>\n
\nand grieves his own impending death in Gethsemane.<\/p>\n
\namong these human moments;
\nan occasion when we see him learn something new
\nand become someone different.<\/p>\n
\nJesus is brought up short by an unexpected truth.
\nNot only does he change his mind,
\nbut does so in a breathtaking 180-degree turn.
\nMost astonishing of all
\nit is a pagan woman who triggers the reversal.<\/p>\n
\nsaying to himself, with some astonishment,
\n“Canaanite lives matter; Canaanite lives matter,”
\nmaybe even working that line into his next public teaching.
\nOf course he would get a lot of pushback,
\nhe usually did.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYes Pharisees\u2019 lives matter
\nand Sadducees\u2019 lives matter
\nand those from the house of David and the Levitical line,
\ntheir lives matter too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cyou are all guys in a position of power.
\nYou have all sorts of ways to assert
\nthat your lives matter.<\/p>\n
\nSamaritan divorcees,
\nthe leprous and the disfigured,
\nthe widows and other social outcasts,
\neven the children
\nto whom the kingdom I am proclaiming also belongs \u2026
\nTheir lives matter as well
\nBut who stands up for them?
\nWho exerts their power and capital to remind society
\nthat their lives matter just as much as yours?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nand when one of those marginalized and belittled does stand up
\nto announce that their life and that their community matters,
\nthe baptized are confronted
\nin the face of our stubbornness, our prejudice
\nto do what Jesus did \u2026 to change.<\/p>\n
\nI have seen you<\/em>
\nfeed the thousands,<\/em>
\nseen miracles spill<\/em>
\nfrom your hands<\/em>
\nlike water, like wine,<\/em>
\nseen you with circles<\/em>
\nand circles of crowds<\/em>
\npressed around you<\/em>
\nand not one soul<\/em>
\nturned away.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nyou can close the door<\/em>
\nbut I will keep knocking.<\/em>
\nYou can go silent<\/em>
\nbut I will keep shouting.<\/em>
\nYou can tighten the circle<\/em>
\nbut I will trace a bigger one<\/em>
\naround you,
\naround the life of my child<\/em>
\nwho will tell you<\/em>
\nno one surpasses a mother<\/em>
\nfor stubbornness.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nI know what you<\/em>
\ncan do with crumbs<\/em>
\nand I am claiming mine,<\/em>
\nevery morsel and scrap<\/em>
\nyou have up your sleeve.<\/em>
\nUnclench your hand,<\/em>
\nyour heart.<\/em>
\nLet the scraps fall<\/em>
\nlike manna,<\/em>
\nlike mercy<\/em>
\nfor the life<\/em>
\nof my child,<\/em>
\nthe life of<\/em>
\nthe world.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nunclench our hands,
\nunclench our hearts
\nand let mercy flow \u2026 through Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n
\n