Sunday Reflection: 20th Sunday in OT - Three Times She Was Turned Away - She Never Left

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Here's my reflection...

First Reading, Isaiah 56:1, 6-7
God speaks through the prophet Isaiah for everyone: foreigners, outsiders, people who did not grow up inside the covenant, are welcome on His holy mountain. His house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. [Isaiah 56:7] If you have been telling yourself that your past puts you outside the reach of what God is offering, the Prophet is speaking directly to you today.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 67
"May God have pity on us and bless us; may he let his face shine upon us." That is not a prayer for the deserving. It is a prayer for the honest. The man who knows he needs pity and asks for it anyway is exactly the man this psalm was written for.

Second Reading, Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
St. Paul gives us great hope as he says God never takes back his gifts or revokes his choice. [Romans 11:29] The call God placed on your life before any of this started is still in place. Your past behavior did not cancel it. Your worst moments did not revoke it. He does not do that. The gifts and the call remain.

Gospel, Matthew 15:21-28
A Canaanite woman, a complete outsider, comes to Jesus crying out for her daughter. He does not answer her at first. The disciples ask him to send her away. He tells her he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. She kneels before him and simply says: Lord, help me. He pushes back again, using language that sounds harsh to modern ears. She does not flinch. She does not leave. She comes right back: even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters. [Matthew 15:27]

Jesus stops. "O woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish." [Matthew 15:28]

Three apparent rejections.

Zero retreats.

Great faith!

Here is what that woman models for a man in recovery.

She did not let silence mean no.

She did not let difficulty mean stop.

She did not let the apparent distance of God mean He was not listening.

She kept coming back to the same place with the same request and refused to be moved until something moved.

That is persistent faith.

That is the kind of prayer recovery requires.

Not a one-time surrender prayer you said at a retreat five years ago.

A daily return to the same place with the same honest need.

Lord, help me.

I cannot do this without you.

I am still here.

I am not leaving.

The thread through all four readings today is the same.

Nobody is too far outside.

Nobody is disqualified.

God's gifts are not revoked.

And the faith that refuses to retreat gets the miracle.

And for the betrayed wife reading this: the Canaanite woman was fighting for someone she loved who was in the grip of something she could not fix herself.

She brought it to Jesus relentlessly and refused to give up.

If that is you today, your persistent love and prayer for your husband is not going unnoticed.

Keep coming back to the same place with the same honest need.

2 Practical Tips:

To Battle Lust: What have you stopped praying about because it felt like God was not answering? Bring it back today. Lord, help me. Three words. The woman said them. They worked.

To Help Your Wife Heal: Ask her today what she has been persistently hoping for in your marriage that she has not said out loud recently. Then receive it as the gift it is without getting defensive. "I want to know what you are still hoping for. Not what you have settled for. What you actually want. Tell me and I will bring it with you."

Three rejections.

Zero retreats.

Great faith.

Keep coming back.

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