16 August 2020
Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 Romans 11:13-15, 29-32 Matthew 15:21-28
This Gospel story makes us ask: ‘why did Jesus respond to the Canaanite woman in this way?‘
But perhaps rather than wondering if Jesus did the right thing or not in his response to the woman we will benefit more if we use this story to focus on our own life, our relationships and reactions to people who come across our path unexpectedly.
Jesus was in this area – a foreign environment – at the time because of the strong opposition of the Pharisees – he was rejected by the religious leaders.
- How often have you found yourself in a strange environment?
- When last did you feel like a stranger?
- Do you meet people who are not part of your circle of friends or workgroup?
- When last did you feel rejected?
- Have you said or done something to cause others to feel rejected?
In our changing world new horizons open up daily as more and more people move from their own home base to new environments. New horizons may come about through personal choice or are forced on us by circumstances. The Covid-19 pandemic is making us face things in a new way. No matter which way they come they present a challenge.
The new environment, our personal “region of Tyre and Sidon” can be the place of new beginning just as it was for Jesus when he met the woman who kept asking for healing for her daughter. New beginnings happen when we get over the initial resistance to what comes at us or when we find ourselves challenged by new demands, new places, new cultures and new needs. While we may not be able to meet all the ways we or others would wish, we know that our choices do make a difference – we grow and others grow by creating a new beginning. And in relation to Covid-19 it is clear that each of us must not only exercise personal responsibility but also act in a responsible way for the benefit of those around us.
- What new beginnings can you name in your life?
- How has your life been enriched by new beginnings?
- When last did you welcome a ‘stranger’, a rejected or self-rejecting person?
- When did you say to someone, “you have great faith”?
- How is your faith today?
- Will you accept the task of acting responsibly in order to help defeat Covid-19?
Adapted from a Reflection of Fr John Dunne SMA, Kenya
Click on the play button below to listen to an alternative homily from Fr Tom Casey SMA
make us happy. such as power, or wealth, or success. Like Solomon in our first reading today we need ‘a discerning heart’ to keep us on the right path, the path that leads us to the secret treasure hidden by the angels. Sometimes, perhaps, we may have found the treasure and then left it aside or forgotten about it. However, like the Welsh priest poet, R. S. Thomas, we can recover it by slowing down, turning aside, and attending to a ‘brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth’. The poem was written as a reflection on the parable of the hidden treasure and is entitled, The Bright Field. It’s short, so I’ll quote it in full.
One time I remember visiting a bush village in Africa. It was a very poor area. It was the dry season so there was little water around. The farmers were waiting for the arrival of the rains to plant their seeds. The previous farming season had been a poor one because of the small amount of rain that fell. The amount of grain still left wasn’t much so they could only eat once daily. On the day I was there a son of one of the farmer’s arrived from the city far away where he worked and he brought with him some sacks of grain. His family was delighted. What really touched me was that the father immediately called all the other families together and he sat down and divided all the contents of the three sacks of grain equally among all of them. He did not keep them for his own family only. He shared because he cared.
Recently I was at a meeting during which one woman said to another, ‘After all these years of marriage I think I will never fully understand my husband. What he did recently really surprised me. I never knew he could be so creative’. No doubt men say similar things about their wives. I remember my good father shaking his head from time to time as he saw some aspect of my mother’s personality that was new to him.
“The success of Shalom,” Fr. McCabe continued, “is in its determination to remove the underlying causes of ethnic, religious and tribal disagreements that wreck the lives of ordinary people. Padraig realised that to achieve this he needed to recruit a highly skilled team of academics and conflict management practitioners to train teachers and tribal leaders in the art and skills of conflict resolution and reconciliation.
Two men who were very good friends for a long time had a serious disagreement and stopped talking to each other. Three months later one of them phoned the other and admitted the major fault had been his and invited the other to a meal which was accepted. His friend forgave him totally and they had a great reunion.
Many years ago I knew a young married couple, very happily married. Then after 15 years of marriage the husband died suddenly. Sadly they had had no children. For the woman life all but ended with her husband’s unexpected death. She said to me once at that time that the sun would never shine again for her in her life. She didn’t see any point in living. She was totally devastated. This went on for about 4 years. Being the quiet retiring person she was, she had depended very much on her husband and after his death, she felt totally alone. Others helped her for awhile but then they had to look after their own families. With the help of a few close friends and her faith in God, she gradually started to live again. In fact, because her husband was no longer there to depend on, she had to develop talents she never knew she had. Bit by bit she grew in self-confidence and now this woman thinks nothing of travelling to the far end of the world alone where before she would hardly go a 100 kilometers. She had matured out of all recognition and the sun certainly shines again for her in her life. I know that it was her faith in God and the support of a few friends, which made all the difference. But it took time.
What is the star that guides you in your way through life?
A priest once told me of a scene he often witnessed in his part of northern Nigeria. One day he was on a hillside observing the valley below. He saw a Fulani walking ahead of his cattleherd who were followed by his 3 wives and a number of children. Obviously this was the place of a woman in the Fulani culture. We know from many cultures women are in a similar situation. But our God is the upside down God who chooses very differently to us. Another image for us in the Old Testament is that of the land being furrowed by the plough in preparation for the sowing. God does that to us too, at time turning our plans upside down. 
The Presentations are delivered by Bishop Patrick Harrington SMA and by Mr Gerry Forde, SMA Justice Officer.
In a recent television interview a famous Muslim scholar said that ultimately there is only one sin and all others come from that sin. What would you name as the worst sin? He was quite clear that the greatest sin of all is forgefulness. According to him if we forget Allah (or for us, God) we forget who we are, what we are about and where we are going. We are like people wandering about without any goal in life, being blown this way and that by whatever prevailing wind blows – pleasure, drugs, money, etc.
We tend to take our modern gas and electric stoves and ovens for granted, but in many countries, homes have only kerosene or solid fuel cooking stoves, which can pollute household air. Each year, more than 4 million people die globally of complications from inhaling smoke from these stoves.
Several nations still rely heavily on pollution-producing cookstoves. Here are just a few of those countries with the following key:
At the end of the program we were very aware that we need the solidarity of like-minded people to take on the many challenges that the program highlighted. While the challenges are many, the hope that was nurtured during the program will sustain us as we live a life that sustains the planet, rather than undermining its life and vitality.
that you’ve won a foreign lottery; opportunities to make easy money working from home. The list goes on.
The BBC report also looks at efforts in conflict resolution concluding with an unusual compromise reached by a farmer who had cause to be furious with the herdsmen. Rotimi Williams, a rice farmer, had 49 acres of rice paddies destroyed in February by Fulani cattle and some of his farmhands were ready to go to war. However, Williams kept a cool head, rationalising, “We need a pragmatic approach where we learn to resolve conflicts with our neighbours.”
The party that Mandela led to an overwhelming victory in 1994 and which has dominated South African politics since, the African National Congress (ANC) is now fighting to keep control of its traditional heartlands. Corruption, scandals and failure to keep promises and meet expectations has brought it to a point where South Africa’s local elections on 3 August 2016 will see it emerge battered and bruised by an increasingly disillusioned electorate in what are the most closely contested elections since white minority rule ended in 1994.
The SMA Summer School was dedicated to celebrating the 1st anniversary of Pope Francis’s Encyclical Laudato Si.
Global Catholic Climate Movement Objectives:
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