REMINISCERE: Homily

“FORGIVENESS COMES THENCE”

Saint Matthew 15. 21-28

REMINISCERE: 24 February Anno Domini 2013

Father Watson SSP and Dr. Michael Anderson SSP

In The Name + of Jesus

   The Lord is always going “thence.” Jesus came first to the Jews, Abraham’s seed, but Jesus was, from before eternity, the Savior of all who would believe—including all the Gentiles to be in-gathered.

   Although it would not be until after His Resurrection and Ascension that the “12” would go beyond Judea to the ends of earth (including Tyre and Sidon) in today’s Gospel Christ Himself ventures into this northern area of the Gentiles. This is a picture of what He would do for all of you. His Word, which means HIMSELF, was carried by the “12” and their successors to Italy, Spain, France, Germany, England and America.  You are the descendents of this “woman of Canaan.”

   You may not a daughter who is “grievously vexed with a devil” but you have sorrows, struggles and heartaches that cause you too to cry out: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David.”

   When Eve turned her back on the Lord, when Adam decided to listen to the voice of the devil he was dooming not just himself and His wife, but all of his children to the vexations of the devil.  The devil says eat (sin) and once eaten, the poison metastasizes throughout the body, and all bodies to come.  The poison of original sin causes both daily sins, and, the results of living in a decaying demonic realm.  Because of your sins, and your original sin, people have diseases, divorces, murders, depressions, adulteries, and yes, demonic possessions, attacking them.  Everyone here has already been, or will be, “grievously vexed!”  Kyrie Elieson.  Kyrie Elieson indeed.

   Repent of your sins in thought as well as in deed and word. Curb your tongue, bridle your mean-spirited brain, and smite your breast as you smite that devil Satan.  Be not like the “12” who sought to silence an outsider, a freak, a foreigner, an undesirable, a woman, a black, an Hispanic, a Frenchman or a liberal.  Let all who are repentant come to Christ. Let all who are hurting and dying come to Christ. Let all “grievously vexed” come to The One who can loose them and heal them and give them life eternal.  For in reality, He comes to them first!

   In her hour of utmost need, the woman turned to Jesus. She needed help to save her daughter so she turned to the Rabbi Whose name meant Savior. She worshipped Him. She worshipped Him as God because she acknowledged Him as Messiah from the earthly line of King David. This Gentile knew the Word of God and believed it despite what her eyes told her, despite what Jesus seemed to be telling her, despite how the “12” treated her, despite what the demon was doing to her precious child.

    The Gospel of Jesus is so precious it is NOT to be tossed to swine any more than pearls should be given those creatures of the unclean, i.e. non-believing Gentile pagans.  First the Law kills sinners and shows them their filth—their sin THEN Jesus shows up right there in their very own Tyre and Sidon, Overland Park and Lenexa, and says “O woman, O man, My love for you is GREAT, My work for your law-breaking is great, My payment for your rightful sentence is great, complete, and finished; be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”

   You are made whole in Water + and Absolution. Come to the Sacrament and be made whole in Jesus’ Body and Blood.

   God's will, promises, purposes and Word stand forever! The "until's" and the "when's" of God are far more long-lasting than the fallen human brain may ever begin to appreciate. We undeserving gentile dogs will feast from the Master's Table, forever. The little Greek girl from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon ... once possessed and grievously vexed, so long ago before the Word spoke of a woman's faith ... will frolic and dance, forever. Our Lady will be a virgin ... our Virgin Mother, the symbol of the baptizing Church, forever. Because the all-healing Lord Christ, God be praised, is our Brother, forever.

In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost