A Pagan Woman Demonstrates How to Pray

There is a powerful aspect to today’s Gospel story. Here we see the Phoenician woman asking Jesus to heal her daughter and he says no in a rather rude way. She responds unphased by his rude response and he grants her the miraculous healing she requested. What can we take from this.

Jesus makes it clear to her, he is not here for her type of people because he only came for the Jews. He does that in order to discern her faith. Jesus is not going to give her a healing if she sees him as nothing more than a healer who happens to be Jewish. By pushing back, she affirms her faith in Him and through him the Father. In other words, she turns from her own gods and recognizes his authority as God. It is then that he heals her daughter.

Jesus came to preach the truth and the truth will set us free. He is ensuring that the woman understands that he is the truth and not a snake-oil salesman whose snake oil actually works.

However, there is another lesson to be applied here. You are living proof of the fulfillment of the main prophesy of the Old Testament prophets. That Jews and Gentiles will worship the God of the Jews. Previously, the Jews were the doorway to encounter God. Pope Pius XII explained that when Jesus died on the Cross, the Jewish law died with him. Therefore, we understand that when he resurrected, the Jewish law did not resurrect with him. At that moment, we went from being under the Jewish law to being under the teachings of the Gospel.

This was a shock to the whole world of both Judaism and Christianity and we can see it play out in the Acts of the Apostles.

A new moment has arisen in our Church and like the old one from Jesus’ death and resurrection, it is controversial as well. It is in the process of synodality.

Many people do not understand it but it is relatively simple. Our Baptism makes us active participants in the mission of the Church and it also gives us a voice in developing a deeper understanding of Church teaching.

This means that like the woman in the Gospel, we all must have a relationship with Jesus not only out of obligation but out of the nature of our being. We all must realize that God is dwelling within us and to be rooted in that God in our lives through prayer and action.

Cardinal Robert Sarah talks about the importance of recognizing and communicating with the Holy Spirit within us at Baptism. We need to listen to the Holy Spirit as he speaks with us which is why he strongly emphasizes silence in prayer. We need to listen and discern with others how the Lord is speaking with us.

This is controversial because many reject this idea seeking to follow an ossified and inaccurate form of Church teaching. Yet, the synodal process is actually putting together the teaching of the Church in an understanding that it is not ossified. It never changes but it deepens and we learn of it more when we do not use the past understandings of our teaching as set in stone but we take the foundation and find what is deeper on it.

Taken the example scientifically, we always understood the existence of the sun. That has never changed but our understanding of the sun changes everyday.

We always understand the Jesus is the way, the truth and the life but the meaning of that word we understand every day through our prayer and our action.

This is why our prime motive is not to focus on morality but to do as Cardinal Robert Sarah teaches in his Catechism of Spirituality to be deeply in touch with God daily in silent prayer and then act on that experience in our daily lives as we discover this more deeply. We plumb the depths of this discovery every day individually, as family and as parish community. This leads us to live our lives by a higher standard than just morality but in as agents of the love and mercy of God.

We all are in this mission together and we all have different roles in it. It begins by being rooted in prayer, that is absolutely essential and to live as the Holy Spirit is guiding us.

So, notice the woman demonstrates this when Jesus rejects her prayer but she brings her concerns right back to him. He then answers her prayer. We all have a mission to do this on our own behalf and on behalf of others. Bring it all to prayer and live guided by the Holy Spirit through the Church and through our prayer.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity