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God wants that His house of prayer be for all peoples,
and all His servants be with the distinguishing marks of
fidelity to His covenant and righteousness (Isaiah 56:1,
6-7).
Christ came to break barriers that separate and to call
to faith the faithless and to hope the hopeless
irrespective of culture and progeny (Matthew 15: 21-28).
Righteous covenant partners
During
the period of the repatriation of Israel from Babylonian
captivity, (Trito) Isaiah continued to put before the
people the reality of God’s universal scheme and their
role in God’s plan of salvation. During the exile, the
people made great sacrifices to preserve the deposit of
their faith and traditions. In this context, when their
very identity and existence as a people was threatened,
they suspected and eventually rejected foreign
influences, even as their distrust and disdain for those
not of the blood of Abraham hardened.
But the
basis for their uniqueness and distinction is not
anything of their own making; rather, it is the covenant
God has offered them. They are God’s chosen people. That
is why God’s prerogatives and attributes of justice,
righteousness and universal compassion have become moral
imperatives for the godly people.
The
reading’s opening double commands: Observe justice and
do righteousness—enunciate the fundamental ethical
obligation of Israel, its social responsibility based on
its relationship with God. And God promises to intervene
and bring salvation to His covenant partners in their
dire straits.
Open to
outsiders
The rest
of the reading pertains to those outside the covenant
community. Though they may be foreigners, these people
are one with the community of believers, both internally
and externally. They have demonstrated their interest to
be part of it; they have joined themselves to the Lord,
ministering to Him as proselytes in certain forms of
worship. The Lord’s name has become dear to them, as
they gave their allegiance to Him and became His
devotees or servants. Their commitment to God is
manifested in their observance of the Sabbath and
fidelity to the covenant and its responsibilities.
In
return, God invites them into the liturgical life of His
covenant community as the crowning act of their
acceptance. They are to proceed to His holy mountain,
His dwelling place here on earth where, ordinarily,
foreigners would be barred from approaching. They are to
rejoice in the temple as members of the praying
community, and their sacrifices and burnt offerings will
be favored there by God just like those of the bloodline
of Israel.
Thus,
the temple is openly designated as “a house of prayer
for all peoples,” not a national shrine exclusively
Israel’s. God is accessible to all; salvation embraces
all.
Crossing
boundaries
Jesus
himself crossed over into pagan territory, disregarding
strict boundaries and leaving God’s own holy land. He
thereby invited or, at least, exposed himself to the
approach of a Canaanite woman in the desperate situation
of her daughter tormented by a demon. Her race had
always been a principal enemy of the Israelites. This
“unclean” and unattended woman dared to go to a strange
Man publicly in disregard of social decorum, to the
annoyance of the disciples.
Jesus
did not make it easy for her by His initial reluctance,
as He pointed out that His ministry was to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel and not to the gentiles,
derisively referred to by the Jews as “dogs.”
For the
sake of her daughter, the woman would not be deterred by
any apparent disdain. She humbled herself and turned the
words belittling her to express her own confidence in
the power and goodness of Jesus. She called Him “Son of
David” with its messianic resonance and bowed before Him
in homage.
Moved by
the Canaanite mother’s remarkable faith, Jesus yielded
to her petition and healed her daughter. Jesus, in
proclaiming the Gospel of God’s saving love for all, had
to break through the limitations and prejudices of His
own cultural identity. The Christian mission to the
gentiles, with a Canaanite woman as a heroine of faith,
means that the good news is to be offered even to the
least likely candidates and brought even to the most
unlikely places.
Alálaong
bagá,
God’s
graciousness shatters barriers and dividing boundaries
put up by our narrow human experience. There are no
insiders and outsiders in worshipping God, no privileged
ones and those marginalized in the covenant relationship
with God. This eschatological reality is supposed to
have dawned already in Jesus’ coming among us.
We have
to learn how to have unity in the diversity of true
Christian universalism, how to be authentically
catholic, without one group demanding from another
conformity to its humanly determined standards. These
exclusionary distinctions are to be outdated in our
social and religious groups.
Sadly,
people are still either excluded because of gender,
cultural or religious perspectives, or included because
of willingness to conform to biased, discriminatory and
harmful standards. The invitation to the reign of God
embraces all people along with their own cultural
profiles.
For more of my reflections and works, visit my blogsite:
http://alalaongbaga.multiply.com. |
