Cardinal-elect Timothy Radcliffe gives Synod reflection on ‘faith of Canaanite woman’
Cardinal-elect Timothy Radcliffe OP has delivered a reflection on the Gospel story of Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman as part of the latest stages of the XVI General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome.
Reflecting on “Pathways,” – the second part of the Instrumentum laboris – Father Radcliffe said the perplexing story from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 15 21 – 28) mirrors some of the “deep questions which underlie so many of our discussions”.
“Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’” said Fr Radcliffe.
“But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly”.
Fr Radcliffe emphasised that the unerlying message of this unusual encounter is that difficult and challenging questions don’t always receive immediate answers, and often when the answers do come they might not be what is expected. The key point to take from it is that we must not give up, whatever responses we receive, but must keep asking the important questions.
“Many people want this Synod to give an immediate Yes or No on various issues!,” said Fr Radcliffe.
“But that is not how the Church advances into the deep mystery of the Divine Love. We must not run away from the difficult questions, like the disciples, who say Shut her up! We dwell with these questions in the silence of prayer and mutual listening. We listen, as someone said, not so as to reply but so as to learn. We stretch open our imagination to new ways of being the household of God which has room for everyone. Otherwise, as we say in England, we shall just be rearranging the desk chairs on the Titanic.
“Despite the hostile reception of the disciples, the woman stays. She does not give up and go away.
“Our task in the Synod is to live with difficult questions and not, like the disciples, get rid of them. What are ours here? The woman comes for her tormented daughter. Surely we must respond to all the cries of mothers and father from all over the world for the young daughters and sons caught up in war and poverty. We must not shut our ears, like the disciples then.
“Also there are deep questions which underlie so many of our discussions. How can men and women, made in the image and likeness of God, be equal and yet different? We must not avoid the question, like the disciples, by denying either the equality or the difference. And how can the Church be the community of the baptised, all equal, and yet the Body of Christ, with different roles and hierarchy? These are deep questions,” said Fr Radcliffe.
“Please stay, whatever your frustrations with the Church,” he concluded. “Go on questioning! Together we shall discover the Lord’s will.”
