She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters."
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish."
And her daughter was healed from that hour.
that fall from the table of their masters."
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish."
And her daughter was healed from that hour.
The anonymous author of the Cloud of Unknowing teaches that God cannot resist the prayer of the helpless. Addressing specifically the prayerful person who is sorely distracted, he encourages the devotee to stop trying to pray and just beg God for help.
Often prayer, healing, reconciliation and many other blessings begin only after we quit trying. Zen Buddhism teaches, “Quit trying; quit trying not to try; quit quitting.” I have found that very helpful. With my own particular brand of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) I sometimes don’t know when to quit.
Alcoholics Anonymous teaches the same thing a little more gently: “Let go and let God.” If I can’t do it and it needs to get done, God will see to it.
In today’s gospel we encounter this dear, desperate, pestiferous woman who just won’t let go of Jesus. She really doesn’t know the man, being a Canaanite, but she has heard he has authority over demons and that’s enough for her. That he is the Messiah or the Son of God or the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity is far beyond her religious knowledge. She only knows that she desperately loves and needs her daughter and has nowhere else to turn for help.
Her desperation opens channels between herself and God that seemed hopelessly clogged by ethnic and religious differences. Such is the power of prayer. We can call it the Holy Spirit.
In our depictions of the Holy Spirit, we often see it coming down on us in the form of fire, water or a dove. But, just as importantly, it arises from the desperate need within us. It is the prayer we did not know we could say, the urgent pain we ignored within our own heart. The Holy Spirit is like that electrical tension that develops in the ground and calls down lightning from the sky. People who have been struck by lightning sometimes describe the sensation of their hair standing on end just before they were struck. The charge was within them, coming from the earth and reaching for the sky’s response.
Prayer is like that. From within, it opens our lungs to breathe God’s air, and our mouths to eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is hunger and thirst and oxygen desperation. It is the pure, eager, irresistible prayer of the Virgin who begged God for her people’s Messiah.
It is a prayer you and I can learn and cultivate as we invite that desperate, driving, passionate desire of the Spirit into our daily experience.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.