Homily for 20th Sunday

In the first Eucharistic prayer for reconciliation we read that from the beginning of time, God has done what is good for man. I often wondered why on earth we ask God all that we do during our prayers, mass and other spiritual gatherings, since God knows our needs and gives us what we need in right time. And nearly every time I consoled myself thinking that God also knows that we will ask Him for all that we are about to ask him. He certainly said to the disciples and the people: Ask and you will receive, whatever you ask in my name, father will give you. Asking God for our needs reveal a certain character of us. It reveals us and others the nature of our faith. We are as Christians, as missionaries ‘Asking people’. Since life comes from God, all that life holds come from God also.
Even before we ask him, God knows and continues to give us. There is actually no need of asking, or searching or knocking at God. Why do we do them? It is to deepen our faith in God. We ask God for our needs, not because God is dumb or deaf, not because God is ignorant, forgetful or insensitive to the needs of His own people. We ask God to show how deep our faith is in Him.
The woman in the gospel is an enemy of the Jews. She is not a Christian; does not know the Love of God shown in the Heart of Christ, does not have a clue about the sacraments and the out-pouring of the Spirit. She does not go to church every Sunday not observes the days of obligation; does not experience God in the Eucharist, does not experience God’s forgiveness at the reconciliation. But Jesus certifies her saying ‘Woman great is your faith.’ This bangs at the heart of Christians who fulfill an obligation of coming and attending the service on Sundays and Christians who put their trust in their bungalows, cars, and bank accounts, and Christians who render lip-service and whose hearts are far from God.
It calls for a greater challenge on the Christians in the modern world today. Those who lick the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table are well-fed and contended in their spiritual journey, whereas the children who could eat all that they want from the table of the Lord are skinny and mal-nourished often found in their death-bed. Those children will die soon.
We have to keep in mind that our asking ability has great effect and influence not on God but on us. It should affect us too greatly that our faith is increased through that. This woman in the Gospel today, though an outsider shows us how our prayers should be: She had love. She had faith; a faith that worshipped Jesus. She had indomitable persistence and had the gift of cheerfulness.
On the contrary the gospel gives hint at the mind-set of the disciples in listening to the needy: ‘send her away’. As true disciples we are not only praying for the increase of faith in us personally and communally but also pray that we are sensitive to the needs of the society. Our God is not the god of the Christians alone, rather God of all. Let us pray that this church of ours may be open to the revelation of the whole humanity: Oh God let all nations praise you. Amen.