The Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), August 20, 2017 - Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28 and Genesis 45:1-15

 Jean Colombe: The Canaanite Woman, in the French Gothic manuscript, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, completed 1485–1489; Musée Condé, Chantilly, France.

It's the Canaanite Woman Who Gives Me Delight

Oh, to think that he learned it from some Canaanite

When he knew it quite well, but he wasn't quite right;

When he argued how food couldn't make you defiled,

Which in hearing reports, made the Pharisees riled,

Since to toss out religion, tradition and rules

Can produce people fearful, and fretful, and fools!

But the prophets have always decried when a rite 

Has, in hurting the poor, turned creative thought, trite;

Jesus, too, observed how the establishment fails

To point out where society's "goodness" oft ails;

But he found himself mouthing traditional aims

That did nothing the love of his God to proclaim:

Thus, the Canaanite mom played her prophetic role,

Reaching back to Hosea and Amos and Joel;

But the thing about Jesus is, he paid her heed -

Helping those who now follow him, follow his lead!

Scott L. Barton

Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

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.” 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.

+  +  +

Genesis 45:1-15

Rembrandt: Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers (c. 1640-1642), Musée du Louvre

"And after this his brothers talked with him."

I wonder what it was they talked about

When Joseph finally told them who he was?

Perhaps, "How's Dinah? How's she holding up?"

Or, "How's your mother? ...Yours? ...And yours?" because

We're led to think he cared about such things;

We can guess, "Don't be angry with yourselves"

Reveals he knew his family well enough

To see that deep within these brothers twelve

Was worry over whom Dad loved the best!

He later* tells them not to quarrel on the way. 

They talked. They left. The promise did not die;

And talk is not as cheap as people say.

                                                                        *(vs. 24)

Scott L. Barton

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.’ And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.