With age-old love I have loved you;
so I have kept my mercy toward you. - Jeremiah 31

Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.” - Matthew 15

This gospel story invites us to two things: to come before Jesus with our deepest needs and to overcome all the arguments against faith with rok solid confidence in his love for us.

Jesus and his disciples are outside Jewish territory. Perhaps it's a "get away time," a bonding time together. It becomes a profound lesson in discernment: to not let "religious" arguments or "excuses" stand in the way of compassion, compassion for everyone.

We know the story well, but we can miss the point if we get distracted by Jesus' apparent rejection of the woman's plea.

It's the disciples wo have disregard, indifference to this "foreign" woman's cry for help. They are unmoved by her faith. She's nothing more than a nuisance - because she's an alien to them, pehaps even because she's a woman. I imagine that Jesus sees this and "plays along" - says outloud what they are really thinking. Proverbs, name calling, othering, are common ways of excluding others and discounting them and absolving us from basic charity, and sometimes, basic humanity. Saying outloud what their indifference says, "She's a dog," Jesus names their "religious justification" for their lack of humanity.

Of course, the woman's passionate love for her daughter, and her desparate situation, founds her faith that only the Master can help. No religious arguments, no cultural prejudice, no othering, can stand in the way of her need and in her faith which leads her to turn Jesus. She says to Jesus what she belives, in effect, "I believe you can do this because I believe you don't really believe those arguments. I believe in your love and your power to heal."

Imagine the shock of the disciples, as Jesus abandons their excuses for indifference, and celebrates the faith of a "foreigner." It must have been so profound that they saved this story, as they shared the good news of Jesus' life and minisry, and Jesus' example which missions us today.

This gospel can offer us the grace to turn to Jesus today with our deepest needs. Nothing in any one of us is "foreign" to him. No sin, no bad judgement, no addiction, no sorrow, no fear, no doubt, no irregularity, places me outside of the compassionate love of his healing heart.

This is an opportunity to disregard the voices within us, or around us, which might discourage us from coming to Jesus with faith. His response will always be, "Of course, I am here for you." Our faith lets us encounter his mercy and healing. And, his compassion becomes the hallmark of disciples who have come to know his love.