Today's Gospel reading happens to be one of my favorites: it's the story of Jesus' encounter with the woman from Tyre and Sidon. As a senior at Canisius College, I wrote my final paper on this very passage (well, Mark 7:24-31 // Matthew 15: 21-28). As a teacher, it's a great one to teach to sophomores because, in my humble estimation, it's the only time Jesus ever loses an argument in scripture.
Let's go at this from an angle effective with sophomore boys. Have you ever seen a "Yo Mamma" fight? Take this as an example:
"Yo mama so ugly she looks like she fell off the ugly tree and hit ever branch on the way down."So, who wins this little battle of wits? Well, the person who can deploy the most devestating "Yo Mama" such as to render the opponent silent. When locked into the "Yo Mama" battle, contest escalates until one person outwits the other with a clever turn of phrase (often to the whistles an "Awwww's" of the gathered audience.
"Yeah? Well, Yo mama so ugly that not even goldfish crackers smile back."
"Oh Hell No! Yo mama so ugly when she joined an ugly contest, they said "Sorry, no professionals."
What has this to do with Sacred Scripture?
Go ahead and read the scripture passage for yourself. Look at how the dialogue between Jesus (a Jew) and the Woman (a non-Jewish woman who is begging on behalf of her daughter -- sociologically, for the Jews of Jesus' day, three strikes!).
(W) "Lord, Help me!"Very often, we read this as Jesus "testing" the woman's faith. I think this misses the bigger point: Jesus got locked into what is called in fancy language "Challenge-Riposte" or, as we might think of it, a form of the "Yo Mama" challenge. He threw out a clever zinger, a one-up on the woman, and she sent back an even more devastating volley.
(J) "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."
(W) "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."
(J) "O woman, great is your faith."
Am I committing a heresy?
No, I don't think so. Sophomores quickly point out that Jesus comes off as a jerk in this passage, one who is cold and callous. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that Jesus was born into a certain historical period and was shaped and molded by the culture of his day. Jesus worldview was affected by his culture, its symbols, its history, its values. It's not surprising that a Jewish man of his day would have such a reaction.
None of us is exempt from the influence of history and culture. Each of us bears a history that has led us to pre-judge situations (we are, all of us, pre-judgers...we are all prejudiced). Yet, when our pre-judgements are challenged, can we modify our thoughts to reflect that challenge? When we are confronted with the truth - as Jesus was confronted with a Stranger who understood who he was - can we adapt? Can we allow a moment when our prejudices are called into question, a moment when a hole appears in our neat-and-tidy picture of the world, to be a moment of gracious expansion? Or do we retreat and retrench, so committed to our former worldview that we cannot allow it to grow?
Our access to the divinity of Christ comes through his humanity. As our model who draws ever closer to the Father, let us glimpse today in the Gospel an encounter where pre-conceptions are challenged and prejudice surrenders to truth. In this encounter, in a sense, I see a cultural prejudice against the Other being razed and, in its rubble, the realization that the Good News of the Gospel is for any who hunger for it. It's not a sin to be wrong, because it's not a sin to have been shaped by one's history. The sin is not accepting the truth when the truth is encountered.
Jesus, let us walk in your ways and let us know the Truth that you are.
2 comments:
Father (or are you a Brother?), I just wanted to say that I greatly enjoyed the book "Brother Astronomer", written by your fellow Jesuit, Guy Consolmagno, of the Vatican Observatory!!!! If you know him, please tell him, next time you see him. Though my father is Catholic, I was not raised in the Church, because my mother was a Baptist, and they wanted their children to find their own religious ideas, so I was never baptized. So far, at 34, I would say that I consider myself a Deist; I do believe in God, but I see him as a watchmaker: in my personal view, He is responsible for there being something rather than nothing, but left the universe on autopilot thereafter. But I think there is much wisdom in Christianity as well as other religious traditions.
We have Santa Clara University near me, in Silicon Valley, for Jesuit education, unfortunately, even with the GI Bill I doubt I could afford it; right now I find myself stuck in a minimum wage job, hence the idea of going back to school, at the insistence of several of my friends, plus I am not academically prepared for a prestigious school like Santa Clara, at least not yet (I am going back to college, at De Anza College in Cupertino, a community college).
Anyway I will definitely read your blog and try to learn from it in the future! :)
--Brian
Dear Brian,
Thank you for your note. Best of luck as you head off to your studies -- be patient with yourself!
If you haven't done so, I'd encourage you to read my "Letters to a Young Atheist" series. In particular, http://thejesuitpost.org/site/2012/07/how-to-be-an-atheist-holes-in-the-map/ may challenge the Deist position or, at least, help to shape it.
Cheers!
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