Vigils Reading – 20th Sunday

A reading from

ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

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The Canaanite woman whose daughter was tormented by a devil came to

Christ begging his help. Most urgently she cried out: Lord, have pity on me. My

daughter is grievously tormented by a devil. Notice that the woman was a

foreigner, a gentile, a person from outside the Jewish community. What was she

then but a dog, unworthy to obtain her request? It is not fair said the Lord, to

take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs. Nevertheless, by perseverance

she became worthy; for Christ not only admitted her to the same noble rank as

the children, dog though she was, but he also sent her away with high praise,

saying: Woman, you have great faith; let it be as you desire. Now when Christ

says: you have great faith, you need seek no further proof of the woman’s

greatness of soul. You see that an unworthy woman became worthy by

perseverance.

Now would you like proof that we shall gain more by praying ourselves

than by asking others to pray for us? The woman cries out and the disciples went

to Christ and said: Give her what she wants – she is shouting after us. And he

said to them: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But when

the woman herself, still crying out, came to him and said: That is true, sir, and

yet the dogs eat what falls from their master’s table, then he granted her

request, saying: Let it be as you desire.

Have you understood? When the disciples entreated him the Lord put

them off, but when the woman herself cried out begging for this favor, he

granted it. And at the beginning, when she first made her request, he did not

answer, but after she had come to him once, twice, and a third time. He gave her

what she desired. By this he was teaching us that he had withheld the gift not to

drive her away, but to make that woman’s patience an example for all of us.

Now that we have learned these lessons, let us not despair even if we are

guilty of sin and unworthy of any favor. We know that we can make ourselves

worthy by perseverance.