Last month, we read in the newspapers of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. Many people gathered together for protests despite the CoVid-19 situation. This movement started because of racial discrimination. Discrimination is something that is present everywhere. I experienced discrimination when I was studying in Rome. When the SARS epidemic occurred in East Asia, I found that people in the streets avoided me because I was East Asian. When Italy lost to South Korea during the FIFA World Cup in 2002, certain places did not want to serve me coffee because the Italians were upset with their team’s defeat by the Korean team.
Today, Jesus seemed to discriminate against the Canaanite woman. The Jews did not mix with people of other nations. Jesus had been preaching only to the Jews and not to other people. Thus, it seemed he was looking down on the Canaanite woman by referring her to dogs. What Jesus said would have been praised by the Pharisees and scribes of his time. Yet when the woman demonstrated her deep faith, Jesus relents. Did Jesus really discriminate? In the eighth chapter of Matthew, Jesus healed a Roman centurion’s servant without question, yet He hesitates here. We can only surmise that he wanted to teach his disciples a lesson. When Jesus did not answer to the woman’s shouting, his disciples asked Jesus to give the woman what she wanted because they wanted her to stop shouting. The disciples were not worried about the woman’s daughter. They were disturbed by the woman’s shouting and just wanted her to stop. They cared for what they wanted and not truly for others’ needs. Jesus reminds his disciples that He gave the Canaanite woman what she wanted because she had great faith. The disciples discriminated against her because she was not a Jew. They had assumed that God had rejected everyone except the Jews. Jesus’s answer tells them that they were wrong. In our first reading, we hear Isaiah tell us that God will welcome foreigners to His holy mountain. In our second reading, we hear St. Paul tell us that although God had chosen the Jews, their rejection of Jesus had made them disobedient to God and those whom the Jews despised and discriminated against are now the ones shown mercy.
Like the Jews, we must remember that while we have the grace of God, it is also possible for us to lose it and that those who accept God despite not explicitly accepting Jesus might have greater faith than us. Coming to Mass is something important for Catholics. We are concerned for ourselves when we come for mass. Are we concerned about others who are not coming for mass? If we are not, then we are like the apostles, only caring for our own wants and are not concerned with the needs of others. The Eucharist should spur us on to greater love and care for our neighbour, whether they are Catholics or not. If we say we need the have the Eucharist but are not concerned for our neighbour, then we are actually looking at the Eucharist as a want and not really a need. I have heard people telling me that they suffered much during the circuit breaker. “I want to receive Jesus,” they would say. The celebration of Mass is important for Catholics and receiving the Eucharist is just as important. However, if the Sacrament does not lead us to greater love for neighbour, then we have to ask ourselves if we have become discriminatory, placing ourselves as first priority and others, ie. our neighbours as no priority. Let us turn our hearts to the Lord Jesus and ask for the grace to be more loving to our neighbours this week because we have had the privilege of receiving the Eucharist.
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