"O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." Today's reading ends well. Jesus praises the Canaanite woman's faith and heals her daughter. But before this pleasant conclusion, we have the difficult scene between the woman and the Lord. First, he ignores her request, then he responds by talking about not throwing the food of children to dogs. Was this really as cruel as it sounds to our modern ears?

No. This is one of those passages where it is essential to understand the historical context. Jesus was not leveling a terrible insult at this particular woman. He was referring to a cultural reality of the day. Jesus was ministering outside of Jewish territory. This woman was a gentile of the region, not a member of the Jewish people. Thus, she belonged to the culture that worshipped idols and did not follow the Jewish rituals of cleanliness. Because of these practices, the Jews   referred to Gentiles as "unclean dogs." This woman, however, proved herself as worthy as the Jewish "children" at the table of the Lord. The Jews received God's blessing because they believed in God. This woman proved that she did too. She was also a believer who recognized Jesus as the Messiah, calling him, "Lord, Son of  David!" And Jesus responded in the end by treating her as one of his children, granting her request.

We too live in a culture that is more and more ignorant of the true God. We are surrounded by idols of all kinds, and by practices that are hardly clean. Like the Canaanite woman, we need the courage to be countercultural. Even when secular society might mock us, may we be willing, like this humble woman of the Gospel, to profess our faith with passion and persistence.

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