Homily for the 17th Sunday After Pentecost. The Canaanite Woman.

Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)

Dear brothers and sisters!

Prayer that comes from a pure heart, joined with gratitude to the Creator and Provider, is a great blessing for us. God, who knows all our needs and sorrows, always grants us what is beneficial for our salvation. Today’s Gospel recounts the healing of the Canaanite woman’s daughter by our Lord Jesus Christ and teaches us that prayer, when combined with strong faith and deep humility, can draw down great and abundant mercies from God.

Yet, our prayer is not always heard by the Lord, for at times, we ask for mere worldly goods. From the history of the Holy Fathers of the Church, we know that even the saints were not always heard by God when they requested something that was not beneficial. The Holy Apostle Paul, who labored greatly in proclaiming the Gospel of Christ, did not receive what he asked from the Lord, for it was not for his benefit. The Apostle Paul writes: Thrice I besought the Lord, and He said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee (2 Cor. 12:8). The Lord does not hear our prayer when we continue to engage in sinful deeds while praying. The Lord said to the prophet Jeremiah, when he prayed for the apostates and the wicked: Pray not for these people, do you not see what they are doing? They have not abandoned their wickedness, and yet you are praying for them; I will not hear you (Jer. 7:16).

The Lord does not hear our prayer when we pray for Him to punish those who have wronged us. We ought to pray that the Lord not punish them for their actions against us, just as Christ Himself prayed for those who crucified Him: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

We Christians must never cease to pray and glorify God, as the Apostle commands: Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). And the Apostle adds: Pray without ceasing. Some, avoiding the labor of prayer and church vigils, ask a priest or their loved ones to pray for them while they themselves attend to their worldly matters, but the Lord awaits from us our own earnest prayer from the heart, as today’s Gospel lesson instructs us.

At one time, the Evangelist Matthew tells us, the Lord entered the land of a foreign and pagan people, the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a certain Canaanite woman approached Him, overwhelmed with great sorrow—her daughter was possessed by an evil spirit. This woman had heard that in Judea a wondrous Miracle-Worker had appeared, One who healed the sick and even raised the dead. She immediately hastened to the One in whom she placed all her hope, to beg and plead for the healing of her suffering daughter. With fervent faith, she cried out to the Lord from afar: Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

The Jews at that time believed in the one true God and did not associate with pagans. Yet this pagan woman, having learned from the Jews about the coming Messiah, though unfamiliar with the prophecies and Psalms of David, confessed in her cry that before her stood the Savior—the Son of David, acknowledging Him as the Son of God, born of the flesh from the root of David—the royal line of salvation. With her perceptive heart, she sensed that this man had compassion for her suffering. Her words, Son of David, were a confession of faith in Christ as the Son of God, her Savior.

However, the Lord answered nothing to her plea and continued on His way in silence, as if testing the strength of her faith, so that she might reveal it to the unbelieving Jews and attract the pagans through this faith. The Savior’s silence did not discourage her; on the contrary, she became even more persistent in pleading for the Lord’s mercy. Following behind the Savior, she continued to cry out: Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David. Her persistent plea prompted the disciples to turn to the Savior. Interceding for her, they said to Christ: Send her away, for she crieth after us. Send her away did not mean dismiss her, but rather, urging, will You not have mercy on her? The grief of pagans is just as terrible and painful as any human grief. In response to their intercession, the Savior answered, not in favor of the suffering mother: I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Lord did not disdain the Israelites who had fallen away from their ancestral piety and virtue, but for the sake of the faith of their pious forefathers, He desired their salvation.

Upon hearing this answer from the Savior, the Canaanite woman did not lose heart; she simply believed that He would have mercy on her. She did not argue but, encouraged by the apostles' intercession, rushed forward and fell at the feet of the Savior, blocking His path, and with even greater fervor cried out to Him: Lord, help me.

And once again, Christ tested her faith, which He, of course, already knew, but perhaps the disciples needed to see the depth of the faith this woman possessed. He said to her: It is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to dogs. These words, so strict, severe, merciless, and sharp, must have deeply wounded the mother’s heart! It seems that upon hearing the Lord’s firm refusal to help her, she would have turned away in offense. But evidently, she saw in Him the face of Divine Love—an attentive, thoughtful, and compassionate gaze. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon those who hope in His mercy (Ps. 33:18). And with humility and perhaps with a smile, she replied to the Savior: Yes, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.

Such great humility and faith could not be required of her, and the Savior openly praised her faith: O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And in that very hour, her daughter was healed. The Savior responded to her faith, just as in other cases (such as the healing of the centurion’s servant), with His love and authority to heal and to have mercy.

Here we see that there is no limit to God’s compassion and that He does not divide people into His own and outsiders. For Him, there are no outsiders—all are His. Yet the Lord expects and requires not mere credulity, but true, deep faith, a willingness to reach Him through humility and supplication. This is what we must learn from the Canaanite woman. A fervent prayer, united with boundless hope, can often avert even the gravest illnesses and sorrows, for the Lord, in His mercy and kindness, does not abandon us in either happiness or misfortune. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble (Prov. 3:34)—Solomon proclaimed in Proverbs. The Canaanite woman, upon hearing herself called a Gentile and compared to a dog, humbly replied, Yes, Lord!, thus acknowledging her unworthiness of the Lord’s mercy. Let us learn from this lesson, says St. Gregory Palamas, how one ought to persevere in prayer. With great patience, humility, and contrition, let us turn to God, even if we are unworthy to receive what we ask in our prayers and are sent away empty due to our sins. Yet let us not cease to pray, but rather persevere in humility, asking from the depths of our hearts, and we will receive from God what we seek, just as the Canaanite woman received, desiring only the crumbs that fell from the Lord’s table. God gives grace to the humble (Prov. 3:34); Humble yourselves, says the Apostle, and you will find grace before the Lord (James 4:10). Such humility is born of great faith, for humility always accompanies faith in Christ, just as the Apostle Peter, after catching a great multitude of fish at the Lord’s command, considered himself unworthy of the miracle (Luke 5:8).

The Lord heard the prayer of the pagan woman, acknowledged her great faith, and said: Be it unto thee even as thou wilt, and in that very hour, her daughter was healed. At that moment, this woman broke through the wall of estrangement from the Lord’s mercy. This wall was especially insurmountable in Old Testament times, when only the physical descendants of Abraham were considered the children of God. Yet Christ has called all nations into the Kingdom of Heaven. Still, today, those who approach the Church’s gate often find before them an impassable wall of misunderstanding, excessively high demands, or outright hostility. We, like Christ, must help those who seek to become children of God to overcome this invisible barrier so that no one desiring to find the Lord remains outside, neglected and despised by all, losing their soul in the process, but instead enters the Church, which is the path to the Kingdom of God, for the holy crumbs there are more precious than the perishable treasures here.

Let us reflect and examine ourselves—could we endure with humility and faith to the end like this woman? And if not, perhaps the Lord has not yet heard us, even though we are within the Church’s walls. We say to God: Hear us, O Lord!—but sometimes we do not hear the pleas of our neighbor, showing them no mercy.

And what is prayer without mercy? It is a voice without power. Mercy itself prays for us, and God looks not at the frequent repetition of His name—Lord! Lord!—but at a heart that is gentle, compassionate, and merciful. God is mercy and righteousness; He loves mercy, shows mercy to the merciful, and justly withdraws mercy from those who refuse to show it.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us be humble and merciful, and then our prayer will be fulfilled, and the Lord, in His wise and all-good providence, will grant us healing of soul and body and establish us on the path to the Heavenly Kingdom!