August 17, 2008
20TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
GOSPEL: RELENTLESS LOVE
In the Christian world of 19th century Britain, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, because he came from an Italian family of Sephardic Jews, was treated by some as an outsider, ever after he joined the Anglican church.
Disraeli once said, “Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.” He may have resonated with the persistence of the Caananite woman in today’s Gospel. She was not of the House of Israel to which Jesus said he was sent. Instead she was an outsider, a foreigner, a gentile. Yet her persistence won healing for her daughter.