“O Woman, great is your faith.”

A little teaching first: the Hypostatic Union is a theological term used with the Incarnation to explain the revealed truth that Christ’s one divine person subsists in two natures. Simply stated, this means that in the Person of Jesus there are two natures: divinity and humanity, and they are in complete unity without any mixture, change, division or separation, as the great Council of Chalcedon stated. So, Jesus Christ is both God and Man. This is a great mystery; hypostasis (upostasis) means, literally, that which lies beneath as the basis or foundation.

Over the last two weeks, we experienced the divine nature of Jesus as He performed the miracles of the feeding of the 5000 and walking on water and calming the storm. Today we see the human side of Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of Creation, as the Book of Genesis and St. Paul both affirm, and He is like every human person and “created in the image and likeness of God,” with an eternal soul, to know, love, serve and worship God.

Even in a feared stranger, the Canaanite woman in desperate need, Jesus recognizes the dignity of this woman whom He meets in today’s gospel. He uses the famous encounter in the pagan northern territory of Tyre and Sidon (which is in modern-day Lebanon) to teach His disciples and to also teach us that no human being is ever outside the care and gentle mercy of God, and no human being is ever to be treated as less than a child of God. However, Jesus initially seems to want to have nothing to do with the persistent woman.

Tragically, this is what we do all too often. We resist or even fear people who are “not like us.” We have to remind others and even ourselves of our God-given human dignity. It’s human to fear—remember the Samaritan woman at the well in John’s gospel, chapter 4—and maybe Jesus was Himself fearful, as a stranger in a foreign land.

We can connect this to what we have read about racism in our country these last two months. The Bishops state on their website:

“Racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and it corrupts the souls of those who harbor racist or prejudicial thoughts. The persistence of the evil of racism is why we are writing this letter now” (www.usccb.org).

Like the Canaanite woman whom we and Jesus meet today, we must respond to this crisis with great faith. Literally, we need to have mega-faith, great faith to stay close to Jesus, to stay close to the sacraments. This is where you will find the grace you need to stay on the path that leads to heaven, to resist the devil—and he will flee from you. In great faith, like the Canaanite woman and like Peter in last week’s gospel, we draw near to God, and He will draw near to us.

Each of us has been redeemed by the blood of the Christ, and each of us is considered so dear to the Lord Jesus that He would still die to accomplish our redemption and salvation. As St. John Chrysostom wrote:

“But after the Canaanite woman had come to him once, twice, and a third time, he gave her what she desired. By this He was teaching us that He had withheld the gift not to drive her away, but to make her patience an example for all of us” (Homily on Philippians 1:18, 12- 13).

On Labor Day, Mon, Sep. 4, we will have a 7:00am and a 9:00am Mass. We also will host a special Potluck and Barbecue in the Parish Hall in the afternoon from 4 to 7pm.

Fr. Kilian and our great Parish Staff

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