Homily for the
20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

August 16, 2026
Matt 15: 21-28
Is 56: 1-7
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

Jesus & the Canaanite Woman
(Francois-Hubert Drouais)

“O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish” (Matt 15: 28).

Jesus’ initial reaction to the Canaanite woman—who is not only not Jewish but probably is a pagan—puzzles us at first.  He seems harsh.  Calling someone a dog is insulting.

We believe Jesus is fully human.  True, his person, the core of his self, is divine.  But a fully human being has not only a human body but also a human mind and emotions.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting the 2d Vatican Council, asserts:

The Son of God … worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind.  He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved.  Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin.[1]

Jesus, a Jewish man of the 1st century in Palestine, struggles with his emotions, e.g., he gets exasperated at people’s lack of faith, and he agonizes in the Garden of Gethsemane about his coming passion and death. 

So here, outside Jewish territory in what is Lebanon today, he seems to be feeling a natural Jewish prejudice against their pagan neighbors.  It takes him a while to recall that the prophets like Isaiah had spoken of “the foreigners joining themselves to the Lord” (Is 56:6) and “all peoples” coming to the Lord’s house to pray (56:7).  It takes him a moment to perceive this pagan woman’s deep faith in him as “Lord, Son of David” (Matt 15:22), i.e., God’s chosen instrument of salvation.

Another possible interpretation of Jesus’ apparent harshness toward her is that he’s posing dramatically for an effect on his apostles.  They’re the 1st ones to object to her presence.  By seeming to take their attitude initially, he’ll make a more powerful impression on them when he hears her prayer in spite of her being a foreigner.  That’s a lesson that the apostles need to learn.

In any case, Jesus can’t resist the deep faith of this Canaanite woman.  God calls to faith and salvation people of every nation, every race, every language.  He  calls everyone with deep personal love.  Jesus acknowledges this:  “O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”  This faith saves her daughter for the moment.  Such faith saves all of us for eternity.  As St. Paul writes, God wishes to “have mercy upon all” (Rom 11:32).

Whoever we are, however humble and unworthy, all we need do is turn to Jesus, “Lord, Son of David,” savior of the human race, and call to him for pardon, cleansing, deliverance from the torments of hell (cf. Matt 15:22); call to him for a place at his heavenly table, in the banquet of eternal life foreshadowed by the Eucharist we celebrate here.

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[1] CCC 470; GS 22.