This Sermon is prepared by
Rev.Fr.Peter Jayakanthan sss
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi Catholic Church,
Houston, Texas, US
20th Sunday of Ordinary TimeWinning over…our self-Doubts! Look for crumbs of blessings ….Is56:1, 6-7; Rom 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt15:21-28Dear Sisters, Brothers and Children, we thank God for offering us an opportunity to come and praise together in His presence. We may carry our various intentions and desires from our hearts and minds. We may have doubts also along with it. It is our doubt and our thought. We carry all of them that we may win over our doubts through our encounter with the Lord in this Eucharistic Celebration. We shall continue to pray for an end to the violence in Iraq and spreading virus Ebola, that the victims may remember that the rest of the world is lifting them in God’s hands for true liberation of peace, harmony and healing.I was responding to the request as a chaplain in the hospital, a female patient asked me, Fr I have a feeling that I have done my purgatory be being in the hospital for long weeks, I am ready for heaven when my time comes, but I still doubt whether I will be included in His list. I asked her why you have such a doubt. She said I kept on praying for my son to come back to faith, but it never happened, my friend prayed for her sick dog but God did not answer her prayer, so I doubt strongly whether I am included in His list. We go through these doubts in our life, why are my prayers are not answered, why am I not granted favors? I see others prayers are answered why not mine? Yes dear friends, we reflected last Sunday that we are called to come out of our caves of fear, pains and stress like Elijah and Peter. Once we come out we develop self-doubt, is it going to be ok, will I be successful and will I be healed. It is not that I doubt God rather, I doubt myself. We grow with lots of self-doubts. The readings invite us to win over our doubts. We have a Canaanite woman seeking healing for her loving daughter from Jesus. Why does Jesus respond positively at the fourth time and pointing at her with humiliation initially? The evangelist Matthew wrote his story of Jesus for a Jewish Christian community caught in a disorderly moment of history. The community was struggling to preserve its connection to its historical roots in Judaism and hesitant before a future that promised substantial, even earth-shattering change. Jesus’s approach offers reflection and invitation to people to embrace and to be part of Christian community away from the legalistic faith of Judaism. Why and what self-doubt did she live with? Jesus encounters her outside the Jewish territory. Tyre and Sidon are two coastal cities. It is about fifty miles north of Galilee in present day Lebanon. Jews considered the Canaanites as their ancestral enemies; they also pictured them as pagans, idolaters and as unclean. She does not stop her request, but pleads and is persistent in prayer. The term "dogs" was an insulting Jewish word for the Gentiles. Dogs were regarded by the Jews as unclean, because they would eat anything given to them, including pork. She also observed that Jesus had used the word for dogs in a joking way, the woman replied: "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table" The woman noticed, however, that Jesus had used the word kunariois--the word for household pets – rather than the ordinary Greek word for dogs – kuon-street dogs. Her argument runs like this: Pets are not outsiders but insiders. Pets are not loose street dogs. They not only belong to the family, but are part of the family. While they do not have a seat at the table, they enjoy intimacy at the family's feet. Hence by calling Master, she affirms that dog is close to master and part of master’s family. Jesus was completely won over by the depth of her Faith, she won over her self-doubts by her persistent and consistent expression, she proved that she is within the circle of the master and no one can separate them. With her confidence and her wit, hence Jesus responded cheerfully, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." If we remember last week’s gospel, Jesus addressed Peter, ‘you man of little faith’, Jesus was with him but he was sinking in his self-doubt; here, society isolated her from God, but she was sure that she is with the master as His pet dog, so Jesus tells her, ‘great is your faith’. Here we observe the healing of her daughter, and their returning to their community, affirms that they are daughters of Abraham. In the first reading, we have prophet Isaiah facing two groups of people. First, people who are ready and willing to depart from Babylonian exile to the Promised Land to begin their loyal life to Yahweh. Second, Israel who married a Pagan community during their long exile years and lived as mixed community, they decided to stay back to avoid personal and religious rejection, discrimination and isolation. Isaiah is telling these people, you too start your journey to re-build your life, Jerusalem is for all, you can worship and offer sacrifice in the holy temple. It is a house of prayer for all. You are also children of Abraham. Win over your self-doubts by feeling part of Yahweh’s family. What are the self-doubts that keep me excluded? Is it doubt about my ability? Do I doubt my approach to my teenage children? Do I doubt my spiritual life? Do I doubt the goodness of my family and community? Do I doubt that my prayers are not answered and I God is far away from me? Does my doubt lead to healthy or unhealthy friendships? We live with doubts, whether we sink with our self-doubt or do we express persistently and consistently like the Canaanite woman? Do I have little faith like that of Peter or great faith of this woman? Her indomitable persistence and unconquerable consistence led her to win over her-self doubts. Others’ opinions and judgments and disciples’ rejection never discouraged her; she believed that she was with master looking for the crumbs of blessings. She was a winner not a quitter. “Winner never quits, quitter never wins”. Cardinal Basil Hume wrote of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, “In 1987 I visited St. Thérèse’s cell in the Carmel of Lisieux. By the door of her cell, scratched into the wood, she had written, “Jesus is my only love.” That was not written in exaltation but in near despair. She was thus crying out to her Beloved that even when she experienced nothing but absence, emptiness, darkness, she clung to the assurance of being loved and carried in his arms. That is faith at a heroic level – that is trust, clinging to God when everything in our experience would seem to contradict his very existence, or at least his love for us.” Happy the man or woman in prison who does not lose faith in Jesus. Happy the man or woman stuck between a rock and a hard place who does not lose faith in Jesus. Happy the one who does not lose faith in Jesus. Don't tell God how Big your storm is, tell the Storm how Big your God is. –Amen. 
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