Summary
When Jesus compares the Syro-Phoenecian woman to a dog, He is purposefully challenging her. As she shows her faith and recognizes that she has a place in the house of God, He does as she asks and heals her daughter.
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Reflective Study Guide Questions
O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish
Mt. 15:28
1. In the Gospel passage about the Syro-Phoenician woman, the woman shouts to Jesus in pain. At first, He does not answer her. When have you shouted out to God in pain and not heard an immediate response from Him?
2. Sr. Orianne says that many secular commentators draw the conclusion that Jesus comparing the woman to a dog shows He needs to grow or is making a mistake. But in reality, Jesus knows exactly what He is doing. He is challenging the woman by His words. How might reflecting on this challenge Jesus gave her change the way you view the difficulties God seems to put in your life?
3. When Jesus compares the woman to a dog, He is actually showing that she does have a place in the household of God because He is referring to a dog who is dearly loved by the family. Do you ever think about your own place in the house of God? How might the woman’s response influence your thoughts on your place in the house of God?
4. Sr. Orianne shares that her own reflections on the passage led her to think about the many times she listens to voices like the ones in the passage that say the woman should be sent away. When have you felt like you were not worthy to be included, as those voices suggested?
Text: Praying with the Gospel: The Healing of The Syro-phoenician Woman
My name is Sister Orian Piera Renee, I am a daughter of St. Paul and it’s an honor to be praying with you today. Today we will be praying with one of my favorite gospel stories. It’s a difficult one, but it deals in particular with healing when we’re still grappling with our identity and whether or not we are deserving of the Lord’s love.
I would invite you if you have not already a Bible beside you to pause this video here and to go get your Bible. I would encourage you as much as possible to use a physical Bible today for this basic simple version of Lectio Divina, rather than a screen, simply because it is less distracting, um, and it is also less overstimulating, and it really helps us to silence our hearts and to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
So pause this video if you need to. Once you have your Bible, I would invite you to turn to the gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 15, verses 21 to 28. That’s Matthew chapter 15. Verses 21 to 28.
We will be walking through a simplified version of Lectio Divina together. So at each step I will pause and explain what we are going to do next. So please don’t worry if you’ve never done this before. And before we begin, we will pray together, asking especially for the illumination of the Holy Spirit and that we may be open. To receiving whatever grace the Lord has already planned for us during this time and already desires to gift to us. I do want to warn you ahead of time. I am recording in the quietest room of our house on a very, very busy intersection. If you hear noises from the street, which I’m sure you will, I would invite you not to see them as distractions, but as opportunities to hold in your heart.
All your brothers and sisters in humanity that are going about their lives, perhaps unaware of the same Lord we are about to read about in this gospel verse, and perhaps at the end of Lectio Divina, we can pray not only for ourselves, but also for them who may not know the Lord’s love at all.
Opening Prayer
We will begin with a sign of our faith; In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Holy Spirit, we ask for your guidance during this time. We ask you to help us to see this passage, whether for the first time or the thousandth time, with fresh eyes, with an open heart, with readiness to receive whatever it is that you wish to gift to us today. Holy Spirit, and we pray this through the intercession of Mary.
Hail Mary
Who listened to you and received what you wanted to give her most fully as we pray. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Matthew 16:21-28
So Matthew chapter 15, verses 21 to 28. We will read it one time together and I would, I will pause after that and just see what you notice is happening in this passage. What are the interactions like? Where are they? How are they speaking to one another? What does it seem like people’s longings or fears or annoyances are? Take note of those things. This first time around,
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting. Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon. But he did not answer her at all, and his disciples came and urged him, saying, send her away for she keeps shouting after us.
He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but she came announced before him saying, Lord, help me. He answered, it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs. She said, yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table. Then Jesus answered her “woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish”, and her daughter was healed instantly.
First Part: Noticing The Details
What do you notice here? What’s happening? Where are they, how they, how are they interacting with one another?
This can be a very difficult passage to understand, although a very profound and perhaps life-changing one. And as you make your own observations about where and how and why, I would like to give you a little bit of historic background. Jesus has left the region of Galilee. And has now gone into the region of Tyre and Sidon which is in modern day Lebanon. So he has left the region of Israel and now entered into Lebanon. And while there is a large Jewish community there in that region, it is predominantly an area where there are Canaanites in the gospel of Mark. In chapter seven, the same story is told and refers to this woman as Syrophoenician So a woman of the region of Lebanon and Syria.
In other words, she is not a member of the covenant people, and we see that referenced here. She’s not in covenant with the God of Israel. What happens here? She a gentile, pagan woman, comes up to Jesus. And starts shouting as many Lebanese women do. I can say, as a Lebanese woman myself, she starts shouting, “have mercy on me, Lord, son of David.”
So already here she is recognizing his authority, his lordship, and she is naming the covenant that he is tied to Son of David. The kingship that he is tied to the Kingdom of Israel, the House of Israel. God’s chosen people, and by referencing this, she is therefore referencing the God of Israel, the House of Israel, their kingship, which comes from their God, anointed by their God, but he didn’t answer her. How many of us have had that experience where we shout into the void with all of our pain and all of our longing, and we do not hear an immediate response? And his disciples, who you may recall grumbled at the idea of going through Samaria, which was not a proper Jewish settlement, were very leery of different interactions with other Gentiles.
They react in a very similar way here. They say send her away. She keeps shouting after us. This woman is causing a disturbance. She doesn’t really have a quote unquote right to be there. They came here to speak to the Jewish people. She was not a Jewish person, and he answers her in a way that the disciples probably somewhat expected, but at the same time in a way that tests her, that’s asking her a question, even though it’s not phrased as a question.
But she recognizes it’s a question. He says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. So again, he’s referring to that covenant that she has already made reference to. She came and knelt before him saying, Lord, help me. He has just said he had come only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel, the children of the Lord most high, who are dedicated to him, who are bound to him, who are the family of God and who are lost.
And in response to that statement, she comes up with pure confidence as a gentile, as a Syrophoenician woman, as a Canaanite, and says, Lord, help me. She’s claiming here that she is lost. She’s admitting that she is lost. She’s claiming his lordship and somehow making some kind of parallel that we do not yet understand with the House of Israel, with the children of God. He answers her again, like really driving home the point here asking her to claim something.
It is not fair to take the children’s food, the children of the House of Israel, the children of God, and throw it to the dogs. This is a very difficult metaphor to compare her to a dog, but he’s not insulting her. And contrary to the claims of many more secular commentary commentators on this passage, he doesn’t need to grow. He’s not making a mistake. He knows exactly what he’s challenging her with, and she is probably the only person in the room who gets it.
And she responds, yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table. What kind of dog sits in a house around someone’s kid with, with under the kitchen table, with the food scraps falling around and looking up the scraps from the floor. This is a dog that belongs to the home. This is a dog that belongs to the family. This is not a random stray that that’s out there, kind of like, you know, biting at anyone who comes near. This is a dog that is beloved. By the master of the home. The master of the home trusts the dog and the family.
So what she is saying here is, you’re right, I’m not in Covenant. I’m not in Covenant yet, but you master of the House of Israel. You are my master too. She is claiming Jesus as her Lord. She’s recognizing who he is. And she is recognizing that she longs to be part of this family and we pray to be brought into covenant with this family. His response to her turning around this question into a claiming of who he is to her, his response is to call her woman. We see him use this word very few times in the gospels, usually in reference to his own mother. Hearkening back to this idea of, you know, the woman being the one to bear the seed that would crush the head of the snake. The woman being the one who is so pivotal in our understanding of salvation history.
While he is not at all referencing his blessed mother here to be called a woman, is to be reminded of all that we are called to be as women. If you are a woman watching this, if you are a man, this is equally, equally important, especially as we understand the women in our own lives, or perhaps if we have children.
The daughters, we are called to raise how we are called to cooperate with Mary’s mission. In the redemption story, he calls her woman, great is your faith, and without even seeing her daughter. He says, let it be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed instantly. So fascinatingly, we have Jesus stepping out of the region that we would, we might expect, or certainly his disciples would’ve expected him to be working in.
Into territory filled with people who are the descendants of their historic enemies, descendants of people who literally practiced child sacrifice. This was a brutal culture historically, and while this practice of child sacrifice was not happening to that extent at this point, it was heavy on the hearts of the people there, and it, it affected them. It affected the generations. And this woman, this Canaanite, the Syrophoenician woman whose ancestors would’ve been part of this historic enmity of the House of Israel, she approaches Jesus claiming him as a Lord, making reference to him as the son of David, as a king, as anointed by the God of Israel.
She’s claiming him and she is claiming God as her own. And recognizing that through her faith and her trust, she trusts God to know that she is loved, that somehow she has a place in this home, even though she doesn’t quite know exactly what it is yet, perhaps. And he looks at her and he says, woman, great is your faith.
Let it be done for you as you wish. So this passage that is so often. Seen as a passage where Jesus is being narrow or insulting or not understanding or needs to grow is not that at all my friends. This is a passage of Jesus challenging his own disciples who are really irked that this woman is around bothering them when she is desperate for the healing of her daughter.
He turns it all around by laying on the table exactly what they are thinking while simultaneously giving her all the pieces she needs to verbalize and claim who he is to her, that she belongs to him, to his home, to his household, to his family. Now that we have read through this one time together and looked a little bit more at the context of what’s happening, we will read through it a second time.
Second Part: Choosing The Words That Stands Out
And this second time, I would invite you to really listen to see is the Holy Spirit underlining a word or a phrase that he’s really like underlining or striking your heart with what stands out to you? What word? Or what phrase stands out to you? What is the Holy Spirit bringing to the forefront for you?
We will pause after this second reading just to see what is striking you. I would invite you to say it aloud and I will share mine aloud with you as well.
Jesus left that place and went away to the District of Tire and Seden. Just then, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting. Have mercy on me. Lord, son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon, but he did not answer her at all and his disciples came and urged him, saying, send her away for she keeps shouting after us.
He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but she came and knelt before him saying, Lord, help me. He answered, it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs. She said, yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table. Then Jesus answered her woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish, and her daughter was healed instantly.
I don’t know about you. What word or what phrase is standing out for you? The Holy Spirit is underlining for you, but for me, um, this time. I really feel led to the phrase the House of Israel. Once you have shared aloud, if you will, um, the, the word or the phrase that is striking you, we will read it one final time, and at the end I would invite you to really reflect upon. What invitation is the Lord perhaps extending to you through this word or this phrase? It’s okay if you don’t have a full-fledged reflection. Maybe it’s something the Lord is going to illuminate in this last reading through immediately, or perhaps it’s something he’s inviting you to just mull over to hold for the rest of the day and to see how he will unfold it in your own healing journey.
Third Part: Personal Reflection
Jesus left that place and went away to the District of Tire and Seden. Just then, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon. But he did not answer her at all, and his disciples came and urged him, saying, send her away for she keeps shouting after us.
He answered. I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, but she came and knelt before him saying, Lord, help me. He answered, it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs. She said, yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table. Then Jesus answered her woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed instantly.
Thanking the Lord For This Healing Love
If you need time for reflection, I would invite you to pause this video before I, I share my reflection personally as I, as I am praying with this, um, phrase, the House of Israel. I am really struck by how so often we can fall into the trap and I know I myself have and can fall into this trap where. I am hearing the voices of the people around me saying, send her away. Like, she doesn’t belong here. She’s not good enough.
She doesn’t have what it takes. She messed up, et cetera, and I might feel that I don’t belong, that I don’t deserve the Lord’s healing, that I can’t earn it. I might even be that voice to myself feeling like I don’t belong, that I don’t deserve healing, and yet this woman is reminding me and her actions. That the Lord invites us into his house. He reminds us that his father has many rooms in his house and that he goes before us to prepare a place for us In the gospel of John, he reminds us in another gospel that he has sheep that belong to other folds, and that he wants to bring them all into one flock in the flock.
That began with the flock of Israel, with the House of Israel, and I really feel the Lord inviting me today. To remember that these voices, whether from myself or from other people, or from the enemy that may have me feeling with like I don’t deserve his healing, maybe that I’ve messed up too many times or asked for it too many times that I belong to his home, that he’s the head of my house, that we are a family and nothing can ever break that, that he longs to heal me.
And to extend his healing to the people that I care about, that I bring to him in prayer. because we are his beloved. And that’s not something that can be earned. It’s just something that is, it is because he is God and he loves us as we close our prayer together today. Um, let us pray together a glory be.
Thanking the Lord for this healing love that extends far beyond our own worthiness. Where we come from, what we’ve done, um, whether we are asking for healing for ourselves or for another, where they come from what they’ve done.
And I would invite you also to ask the Lord to help you grow in conviction that you are his family and that no one can ever rob you of that.
Glory Be
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World with without end. Ah. Amen. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So whatever word or phrase was on your heart, whatever illumination you received during this time, or whatever illumination you’re still waiting for, I would invite you to bring it into the rest of your day.
Grapple with that word, grapple with that phrase. Write it down. If you’re afraid, you’re gonna forget and get distracted by all the things going on in your home today and see it unfold throughout your day, throughout your week, throughout your month. See what the Lord is promising and extending to you.
God bless you.
About Sr Orianne Pietra René, fsp
Sr Orianne Pietra René, fsp, was born into a multi-cultural and multi-faith home, and converted to Catholicism at a young age. After years of ongoing little conversions of heart, she left a teaching career to enter the Daughters of St Paul, a community of religious sisters dedicated to proclaiming the Gospel through the most effective means of communication, as St Paul did. Sr Orianne’s greatest wish is for all people to find their healing, their belonging, and their joy in Christ!
You can follow her on Instagram here.