“O woman, great is your faith!* Let it be done for you as you wish.” - Matthew 15:28

She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." –Matthew 15:27

I have to admit this is a tricky gospel to read at first. You can look this in a wrong way because it sounds like Jesus is just on his way of turning down a Canaanite woman who needs his help because her daughter is being tormented by a demon. The Canaanites are generally an idol-worshiping ethnicity. The woman is calling out to Jesus saying “Have pity on me son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. At this moment it is a very “oh hinde kulba my heart” moment for the Canaanite woman because Jesus is not responding to her call but she still called Jesus to make him respond. Even the disciples are asking Jesus to send her away because she is a Canaanite woman. They think that she does not believe in God but in reply, Jesus says “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. With that being said, He helps people who have faith in God. The woman came and did homage, saying, “Lord, help me” and to his reply “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Wait a minute. What is Jesus saying? What do the food, children, and dogs represent when he said that? In my interpretation, the food is the grace and blessings of God. The children are us, the people who believe and have faith in the Lord. The dogs are the ones who have no faith in God but when graced will take any. Why should the grace of God for his children be given to a Canaanite woman? The woman replies saying “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Jesus then believes the woman has great faith even if she is a Canaanite so he heals the woman’s daughter within that hour. What the woman meant was she would take any grace of God even if it’s not much. She also refers to herself as a dog because she has a master; God. Jesus believes that this is not a usual Canaanite whom has no faith but a woman who accepts any from God. With that, it proves the woman’s faith which makes Jesus heal her daughter.

I too have a Canaanite woman or dog moment. There was one time back in college where I and my partner in a project in coding and designing a software really had a big problem where it tested our character and we really sounded like giving up even if we invested in sleepless nights to work on it. Even if this problem is technology related, I did pray to God about dealing our problem and even my partner too perhaps did pray. It did wasn’t granted right away like a snap of a finger. It reminded me how I became a dog at this troubling moment because I was low in faith at that time and I ask for something big from God. After reading this gospel, this reminded me I did received some blessings which I can describe them as scraps but when you gather those scraps collectively it becomes a huge pile of scraps which was really the answered prayer from God. From that on, the problem was solved and our momentum in working on our project is building up until it was a success for us.

Truly, God moves like an awesome good-guy ninja (patay mali lang pero ang grasiya na diay ga ulan-ulan na) and sometimes it gives me a chuckle or two or it made me think and feel that we are blessed, touched or even healed by him to the point that I did do a brofist in the air once. In return, let us also be thankful to him day by day even if the blessings are noticeable or not. We don’t need to be specifically acknowledging the things that we should be thankful for but God knows.

We have our own Canaanite woman or perhaps dog moments. The Lord’s grace and blessings are for everyone who believes in him. Even to the people who are perceived as non-believers but deep within they are followers of Christ and to those who don’t believe in God, they have the chance to believe and receive the grace and blessings of God.

May everyone have a blessed and happy Sunday. Lots of love from the land of the rising sun.

-Gian Leonard “Bok” Durante