http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081411.cfm
Once upon a time, Ida was on her way out of the house to meet with a cantankerous client. She was dreading it. Every time they met for business, they would banter back and forth. And the meetings always ended with the client yelling at Ida. The look on her face must have given her away because her four-year-old daughter asked what was wrong. “I’m going to meet a man who always yells at Mommy,” she told her. “Oh,” her daughter remarked, “you’re meeting Daddy?”
Much is the ink spilled on the interpretation of the story of the Canaanite woman stopping Jesus in his tracks! The other day I read a blog that said she teaches us how to grovel before God so that God will answer our prayers. Really? Yesterday I listened to a sermon that told me that Jesus tested the Canaanite woman like a Kung-Fu Master tests pupils with a detestable and despicable process of abuse and starvation. Really? And the other day I read a theological explanation that said the Canaanite woman stretched Jesus and taught him to include even enemies and outcasts in his divine plan. Not a bad idea but I wonder.
How about dogged bantering?
Already in the latest books of the prophet Isaiah, it was written that those foreigners who joined themselves to the Lord could worship at the temple. All those non-Jews who kept the Sabbath could pray and make sacrifice in the temple. Even St. Paul tells the Gentile Romans that God calls everyone to salvation. And when an outsider says yes to faith, God’s gifts of the Spirit and God’s call are irrevocable.
As Lord and Savior and as scholar of the Law, Jesus would have known all of the above. He would have known that his Father includes everyone from the plan of salvation. That is why I do not agree that his address to the Canaanite woman was insulting. I think that she was excellent at dogged bantering.
I define dogged bantering as “tenacious teasing.” And Matthew gave us the ritual. Faith is a relationship with a living person…Jesus Christ who shows us the face of God. And this relationship demands a show of faith. Remember that the woman called Jesus “Lord” three times! She prostrated herself in front of him to do him homage and she also blocked his way! He told her that puppies do not deserve to eat. She told him that the puppies love the scraps. In the words of Sister Barbara Reid, O.P., there is no more audacity than a mother who asks for healing for a child.
Dogged bantering belongs to the Christian Tradition. For example, St. Benedict tells us in chapter fifty-eight of the Rule that we should not admit the newcomer to the monastery right away. She should stand outside or go away for the first four or five days. She should bear patiently the harsh treatment and the difficulty of entering. If she persists then she is a true example of seeking God.
Dogged bantering places us squarely on our faces blocking the Lord who desires to see our prayers. Dogged bantering sets us in the middle of a Divine Friendship that needs to know how serious we are about our faith. Whether we are novices in monasteries, mothers and fathers seeking healing for children or family members with diseases, people who need jobs or better jobs, people lonely after the death of spouses, or, people who wonder if they really belong to the Church, it is ok to banter loudly with the Lord. The place to begin is at the Eucharist where God and we stand our ground.
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