The Faith of the Canaanite woman (Syro-Phoenician)

See also: The Canaanite woman.

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The Faith of the Canaanite woman

The episode of the Canaanite mother according to Matthew or the Syro-Phoenician according to Mark depicts a Jesus far from the figure of goodness he is known for in the rest of the Gospel. It is among the most commented passages of the New Testament due to the questions it raises about Jesus' behavior, the Woman's faith, and the theological implications.

For Maria Valtorta, this episode completes the turbulent announcement of the universality of Salvation that Jesus made three days earlier at Alexandroscene and the preparation for the future sending of the apostles into pagan lands.

The Gospel Narrative

Jesus and the apostles are in a pagan territory, which is rare in the gospels. Jesus usually travels through the lands of Israel. A mother in distress comes to beg Jesus to deliver her daughter from the demon who possesses her. Jesus passes by without answering her. The Disciples catch up to him to beg him not to grant her wish, but to send her away because she is disturbing them with her cries. Jesus does so, dismissing her in a haughty manner: He has come only for the lost sheep of Israel!

The distressed mother, far from becoming discouraged, blocks his path by throwing herself at his feet. Jesus then compares her to a dog. Yesterday as today, the comparison is contemptuous, although Jesus softens it: "little dogs." Undeterred, the Syro-Phoenician woman, whose name is unknown, humbles herself to only ask for the crumbs fallen from the table. Jesus then fills her wishes.

The Exegesis Questioning

This episode of the Canaanite mother is always a challenging exercise for the priest who must comment on it: Jesus is unrecognizable. He who is "gentle and humble of Heart" passes by comparing the Woman to a dog. Certainly, the Greek term kynaria (little house dogs) Jesus uses is sometimes less pejorative than kuon (dogs), but the depreciating comparison remains.

Some say he is a prisoner of the prejudices of his time, as suggested by the dismissal of the distressed mother's request. But in the sermon on the mount, he shows quite the opposite: mercy is the fulfillment of the Law.

Others think that he discovers on this occasion his vocation as universal Messiah. Yet he knew the Scriptures so perfectly that at 13 years old, he held a conversation with the greatest doctors of his time on this subject.

Furthermore, what would he be doing in this pagan country if he had been sent only to the "lost sheep of Israel" as he says in the Gospel?

Finally, if two evangelists (Matthew and Mark) report this episode even down to the dialogues, it can be deduced that it is part of the essential that the Gospel selects to strengthen our faith.

In the work of Maria Valtorta

The Context

This passage of the Gospel, which seems a shadowy zone, is clarified in Maria Valtorta. The episode takes place on Friday, January 19, 29 (18 Shebat 3789) near Kedesh. It is winter. The apostles walk in cold and mud: they grumble as anyone in their place would. They are in a pagan land, horror for the Israelites. The inhabitants return their hostility, however. But why does Jesus take them to this lost country, instead of attending to the lost sheep of Israel, as he clearly said when sending them on Mission for the first time?

A supreme failure, they are forcibly expelled from the city of Alexandroscene where Jesus was preaching God's tenderness for all men with the parable of the Workers of the eleventh hour. James, son of Zebedee, begins to doubt openly, which deeply wounds Jesus. John, the apostle Jesus loved, soon joins his brother in Revolt. They are tempted by Violence. It disfigures them Jesus warns them: they are, at the moment, more sons of thunder than sons of God. They will earn their nickname Boanerges which is both a friendly nickname given to their fervor and a warning.

The Syro-Phoenician Woman

This Phoenician woman had heard about Jesus and had made the special journey. In the cold of this January morning, she waits for him at Jonas and Sara's home: they welcome him; he has gone to pray. When he arrives, he is in a hurry and wants to reach Aczib before the Sabbath. He does not have time to receive the Phoenician woman. But she appears:

"A poor weeping shy woman… She stoops and comes forward almost creeping [...]."

She pleads:

"Have mercy, O Lord, You can do everything. Raise Your voice and Your hand and order the unclean spirit to go out of Palma. She is my only daughter and I am a widow… Oh! don’t go away! Mercy!…"

But Jesus "is inexplicably hard towards the poor woman, who is dragging herself along on her knees with her arms stretched out in suppliant attitude [...]." She stayed, in the cold, at the door waiting "like a little dog." But Jesus walks quickly, deaf to every call. The inhabitants of the house say to the Woman:

"Resign yourself! He will not listen to you. He said so Himself: He has come for the children of Israel…"

But the Woman, "desperate but at the same time full of faith" begins to follow the Master while continuing to shout her pleas that draw to the doorsteps of the village all those who are awake. The apostles are disconcerted by this completely unusual attitude. The presence of the crowd becomes embarrassing. The apostles cannot stand it any longer: they address the woman harshly: "Be quiet and go away!", but she pleads all the more. They decide to call Jesus:

Let us go and tell the Master to send her away, since He does not want to hear her. This cannot go on!"

Which they do by asking Jesus to make her leave "very severely."

The Dialogue with Jesus

Jesus stops, but only to renew very clearly his rejection:

"Be quiet, woman. And go home. I have already told you. I have come for the sheep of Israel. To cure the ones that are ill and find the ones that are lost. You are not from Israel."

This does not disarm the distressed mother at all. Jesus rebukes her:

"It is not right to take the bread of the children of the house and throw it to the dogs in the street."

The wording is not softened: these are not little dogs, but street dogs. The Phoenician woman is not offended by the comparison but uses it as a springboard to renew her request:

"I believe in You. And through my faith, from a dog of the street I have become a dog of the house. [...] You did not see this poor distressed dog, starving for Your grace, waiting to go in, creeping, where You were, to kiss Your feet, imploring You not to drive it away…"

Jesus resumes his objection, but the tone softens:

"It is not right to throw the bread of the children to dogs" repeats Jesus.

The Phoenician woman seizes the opening: she is no longer a street dog, but a house dog:

"But dogs go into the room where the landlord is eating with his children, and they eat what falls from the table [...] I am not asking You to treat me as a daughter and let me sit at Your table. But give me at least the crumbs…"

Jesus smiles at these words. His Face transfigures in this smile of joy.

The Resolution

"Oh! woman! Great is your faith. And you comfort My spirit by it. Go, therefore, and it will be done to you as you wish. As from this moment, the demon has gone out of your daughter. Go in peace. And as from a stray dog you wanted to be a dog of the house, endeavour in the future to be a daughter sitting at the table of the Father. Goodbye."

It is therefore the strong faith of The Canaanite woman that wins the healing. But the apostles want to understand the reasons for this so unusual behavior:

«But, Master, why did You make her implore You so much, before listening to her?» asks James of Zebedee. «Through your fault and the fault of all of you. That is not a defeat, James. I was not expelled, derided or cursed here… Let that be a relief to your disheartened spirits. I have already had today My most delicious food. And I bless God for it.»

Indeed, the eight apostles had not stopped grumbling against bad weather, this inhospitable stay in foreign land, the absence of conversions and the rejection of the populations. The anger had even spread to John of Zebedee the Apostle and his brother James who wanted to attack the opponents:

"Violence can be useful at times."

Jesus reproached them for this and nicknamed them the "sons of thunder."

The Contribution of Maria Valtorta's Account

Jesus staged all the prejudices of his apostles, still too human. This is the fundamental lesson of the episode. It will be striking because the Master disfigures himself in their humanity: he is no longer recognizable. This same disfiguration that we obtain when we harden the Face of the Church. But the lesson will be salutary for future evangelizers. The brilliant faith of the Canaanite mother is a sharp answer that the apostles will not forget when they leave to evangelize the distant lands they currently dislike. In these lands, Souls await God. They will face difficult material conditions, rebuffs, humiliations. Their apostolate will seem sterile, similar to Jesus evangelizing the pagan lands of Tyre and Sidon. But Isaiah proclaims it: the reward is beyond appearance. Indeed, beyond the Faith of the Canaanite woman, the episode reveals this reward in the mother of little Joanna who seeks Jesus, without despair, in every city. Or in the figure of Esther, married to the Roman Titus, who leads an exemplary life despite public disapproval.

Likewise for us, apostles in our time, the scene illustrates these prayers we so often address for the "lost sheep", for those who are not proper, not like us, who do not have the right manners, or the right customs, or the right rites. These prejudices make us forget that we must go beyond the customary barriers to bring our evangelization to the universal dimension of salvation as invited by Lumen gentium.

This brief journey into Phoenician land, under difficult conditions, marked by the rebuffs of Alexandroscene and meager successes, is above all rich because it prepares the apostles for future harvests won at the cost of the blood of the martyrs.

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