Canaanite woman
Is 56:1, 6-7; Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Rom 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt 15:21-28
Of all the characters in the Bible, a few stand out as extraordinary spiritual masters who have the unique gift of accompanying us along the journey toward the heart of God. Among these I would include the Canaanite woman who appears in today’s Gospel.
To understand why, we need to go back to the beginning; way back, to the Garden of Eden.
If someone were to ask what Adam and Eve did that led to their expulsion from the garden, I suppose the most common answer would be that they ate of the forbidden fruit.
That certainly had something to do with it, but I’ve always thought that it was an act of omission, rather than commission, that mostly led to their troubles. What they never did throughout the entire scene leading up to that first fatal bite was talk to God.
The serpent, through his temptations, suggests to Eve that God is cruel, jealous and petty; that he is depriving humanity of what is rightfully theirs to keep them from becoming his competitors. The serpent achieves this through a series of statements, each one more condemning of God.
At any point along this progression, Eve could have paused the conversation and simply checked in with God: “Lord, did you really say we could not eat from any of the trees in the garden?” “Lord, are you actually afraid that we would manipulate the knowledge of good and evil so as to compete with you?” and so forth.
But neither she nor Adam ever say a word to God. Instead, they objectify God, allowing the serpent’s lies to create an entirely false narrative about who he is and how they should relate to him.
Presumably, if they had engaged God in dialogue, he could have exposed the lies and reinforced that he saw both Eve and Adam as very good. In all likelihood, that would have been the end of it and we would never have gone east of Eden.
Now fast forward from the mythic mists of pre-history to first-century Palestine, where we meet another woman who finds herself in a challenging situation. While Mary’s circumstances are obviously different from Eve’s, she nevertheless is facing uncertainty about what God is up to.
We refer to Mary as the “new Eve,” largely because she is obedient to God whereas Eve was not. We tend to focus on Mary’s “yes,” but there is another perhaps equally significant way in which Mary reverses what Eve did.
When faced with a situation that led her to question God’s actions, she did not hesitate to speak directly to God through Gabriel: “How can this be, for I do not know man?”
Significantly, she voiced her concern to God before offering her “yes.” In response to her question, God offered an explanation. If there were any tempting voice in Mary’s ear telling her to reject Gabriel for suggesting that she would conceive out of wedlock, that temptation was dispelled by her dialogue with God.
Returning to today’s Gospel, we encounter yet another woman who is wrestling with a difficult situation. Unlike Eve, but very much like Mary, this Canaanite woman directly speaks what is in her heart. In fact, she seeks Jesus out and initiates the encounter.
When she faces obstacles that might have otherwise led her to retreat — whether the disciples’ dismissive attitude or Jesus’ remark about not throwing food to the dogs — she instead speaks even more emphatically what is in her heart. She doesn’t censor herself out of fear, nor does she rage in anger.
The Canaanite woman has a powerful lesson for all of us on how to pray. Too often we hold back from God exactly what is in our hearts because we may find it shameful or not “holy enough” to put before the Lord. But in doing so, we set up barriers between ourselves and God, preventing us from freely receiving what he has to offer.
Eve never gave herself the opportunity to hear the truth from God because she chose not to authentically engage God in dialogue. Today’s Gospel shows another way: “Canaanite woman, teach us to pray.”