Week 18 of the Church year
കനാന്യസ്ത്രീയുടെ ഞായർ
A foreign mother follows Jesus, shouting for her sick daughter. He does not answer. The disciples want her gone. She keeps asking, and Jesus calls her faith great.
In the region of Tyre and Sidon, a Canaanite woman begs Jesus to heal her daughter. He is silent, then says he was sent to Israel. She kneels and answers his hard words with humility and wit. He praises her faith and her daughter is healed.
On the fourth Sunday of Lent the Church reads a miracle for a foreigner. The morning Gospel tells of another outsider, the Roman centurion.
She was not put off by silence. Keep praying when it feels as if nobody is answering.
ഈ ഞായറാഴ്ചയുടെ വായനകൾ
A Syrophoenician mother’s faith, and a deaf man hears: “Ephphatha, be opened.”
A Roman centurion’s faith: “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
Samuel sets up a stone, Ebenezer: “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
Aaron’s staff buds, blossoms and bears almonds overnight.
My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Peter before the council: there is no other name by which we must be saved.
I do not do the good I want; who will rescue me? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.
A Canaanite mother’s great faith, and crowds healed by the Sea of Galilee. This is the Gospel of the day.
Open in five scenesIsaiah says foreigners who hold fast to God will be welcomed into his house of prayer for all peoples. Aaron’s staff blossoms, and Samuel sets up a stone to say the Lord has helped us. Peter says there is no other name by which we are saved.
References follow the official lectionary of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Your parish may read them in a different order.
Pick a scene to see what happens in it and what is easy to miss.
Jesus goes to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman comes out shouting: have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is badly troubled by a demon.
She calls him “Son of David”, a title many in Israel would not give him. A foreigner sees who he is.
Jesus does not answer her at all. His disciples urge him: send her away, she keeps shouting after us.
His silence is not the end of the story. Matthew lets it sit there before anything else happens.
Jesus says he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. She kneels: Lord, help me. He says it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.
Her prayer becomes shorter each time: from a long plea to “Lord, help me”. Many of the best prayers are that short.
She answers: yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table. Jesus says: woman, great is your faith. Let it be as you wish. Her daughter is healed at that hour.
A chapter earlier Jesus called Peter “you of little faith” (Matthew 14:31). The two people he praises for great faith in Matthew are both outsiders: a Roman centurion (8:10) and this woman.
Back by the Sea of Galilee, crowds bring the lame, the blind, the maimed and the mute. He heals them, and the people glorify the God of Israel.
The crumbs she asked for turn out to be a whole meal. Right after this, Jesus feeds four thousand.
The verse to keep
“യേശു അവളോടു: സ്ത്രീയേ, നിന്റെ വിശ്വാസം വലിയതു; നിന്റെ ഇഷ്ടംപോലെ നിനക്കു ഭവിക്കട്ടെ എന്നു ഉത്തരം പറഞ്ഞു. ആ നാഴികമുതൽ അവളുടെ മകൾക്കു സൗഖ്യം വന്നു.”Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you even as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.
The Canaanite womanകനാന്യസ്ത്രീ
A mother from the coast of Phoenicia, outside Israel.
“—”
Her daughterഅവളുടെ മകൾ
Healed without meeting Jesus, from a distance.
“—”
പിന്മാറാതെ ചോദിക്കുന്ന വിശ്വാസം
This is one of the hardest conversations in the Gospels. A mother asks for help for her sick child, and Jesus first says nothing, then says he was not sent to her, then uses a word that sounds like an insult. It is uncomfortable to read, and it is meant to be.
What stands out is the woman. She does not leave in anger, and she does not argue that she deserves help. She takes Jesus’ own picture and turns it into a prayer: even the dogs get the crumbs. She trusts that there is enough at his table for her daughter too. Jesus praises her faith above anyone else’s in Matthew.
Most of us have prayed and heard nothing. It is tempting to stop. This woman shows another way: keep coming, keep kneeling, keep it short if you must, “Lord, help me”. Silence is not always a no. Sometimes it is room for faith to grow.
കുടുംബമായി സംസാരിക്കാം
Is there something you have prayed about for a long time without an answer? How do you keep going?
Two minutes after the audio. Everyone gets a turn, and nobody is interrupted.Choose one long-standing family prayer and pray it together every night this week, even if it is just “Lord, help us”.
Lord, help me. Like the Canaanite mother, teach us to keep asking when you seem silent, to trust that there is enough at your table, and to bring our children to you. Amen.
The whole year
Every Sunday of the Church year, season by season: readings, the Gospel and a question for the family.
Sunday 4 of 7 in Great Lent