‘O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as
you wish,’ Christ told her. “And her daughter was healed from that
hour.”
In relation to God, we may fall under very different, and
even conflicting, categories. We can be believers or non-believers,
friends or foes, etc., but to God we are all his children, objects
always of his tremendous and gratuitous love.
No matter how the state of our relationship with God is,
whether it is hot, cold or lukewarm, we should try our best to go to
God, especially in some extraordinary situations. He is our last and
most reliable resort especially when we find ourselves in some
impossible situations.
For this, of course, we just have to activate our faith in
him, even if our belief in him at the moment is not that strong.
Remember one gospel character who said, “I believe, Lord, but help my
unbelief.” (Mk 9,24)
We should just be humble enough and try to clutch as tightly
as possible to whatever strand of faith we may still have in God. To
be sure, God always listens and acts on our importunings, even if we
seem to annoy him.
We should just overcome whatever fear or shame we may have
to approach God our Father. To him, we will always be a child who can
give him great joy whenever we act like the lost sheep and the lost
coin that are finally found or the prodigal son who has decided to
return to the father.
With just a little flicker of faith and repentance, the
heart of God would readily melt into compassion and mercy. In the case
of the Canaanite woman, for example, Christ immediately gave in to her
request when she did not relent with her request despite the apparent
initial rebuke.
“It is not right to take the food of the children and throw
it to the dogs,” Christ told her at first. It sounds like pure insult,
right? That was because being a Canaanite, the woman has no right to
ask a favor from a Jesus, a Jew. That was how things worked that time.
It was also because Christ was actually testing the woman of her
faith.
And true enough, the woman did not take offense at the
response of Christ, but went to argue her case, showing the intensity
of her faith in Christ. “Please, Lord,” she said, “for even the dogs
eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”
At that, Christ relented, amazed at the faith of the woman.
“O woman, great is your faith,” Christ said. “Let it be done for you
as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.
It’s truly a beautiful story that assures us that no matter
how unworthy we are to approach God for a favor, God always listens
and cares for us and will give us what is truly good for us.
May we have the same faith as that of this importunate
Canaanite woman!
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