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Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 17 August 2014


Fr Robin Gibbons

Fr Robin Gibbons

Homily 20th Sunday of the year

Everyone of us who works with people at a fairly close level, in other words those whose vocation or profession brings them to come into contact with numbers of people each day, will know the problem of burnout. It is inevitable. Anyone who ministers to others, be they social worker, teacher, doctor, minister or quite simply somebody who has a sympathetic manner and a ready ear, will feel exhausted with the constant demand and constant giving. I often just want the persistent demands of others to stop for a while so that I can recuperate, rest, and take stock of my own inner needs, but sometimes we simply have to go on being there for them!

The gospel of the Canaanite woman this Sunday could be looked at in this way. Here is Jesus going into a particular region outside Jewish control and here is a persistent articulate woman demanding that he heal her daughter. The mood of the story is one of tension. She is annoying and one gets the impression that the disciples found her difficult to deal with. At first Jesus does not answer her, remaining silent. Perhaps he wishes she would just go away!

But then things shift as they often do when genuine need reveals itself and our hearts open to another. In an extraordinary dialogue Jesus seems to test her, to see if she persists in her demands. This in itself should ring a bell with us, for how many of us have not had our prayers immediately answered in the ways we want, what do we do?

The woman is our answer, she is not put off and moves closer to Jesus, but he tests her further. He tells her that the children( Israel) are to be fed first and the food not given to the dogs ( the Canaanites). Straight away she comes back at him, reminding him that the pet dogs of the children ( no this time dogs do not equate with nastiness) eat the scraps from the table.

This answer convinces Jesus of her genuine faith and recognition of who he is and what he can do, so he heals the daughter. We also know that the Lord communicates with us through different stages of encounter, silence may not be a non answer, but an invitation to get closer, to step out in trust!

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