PARISH NEWS

Be off with them!

Australians have a long history of struggle, with varying degrees of success, in dealing with “the other”. Particularly during the last century, Anglo-Saxon Celts have been joined by a long list of people of different races, customs and religions. Now we can’t conceive an Australia without Dutch pragmatism, Italian panache, Greek ebullience or Vietnamese diligence. But within recent memory all sorts of voices cried, “Send them away,” these “house-dogs.”

More recently the cry has been, “Keep these house-dogs out, send these refugees (particularly Muslim refugees) away because they are not us”. They are “the other.” 

This Sunday’s gospel (Matt 15:21-28) features the disciples urging Jesus to send away the Canaanite woman. As a woman and a foreigner she has no status, she is to be scorned and ignored. She is an annoying impertinence. Jesus too struggles under the weight of cultural and social expectation: this woman is from the not-us, from the despised enemy. How could she have a part in the reign of God, which Jesus is proclaiming? “Send her away”, the disciples urge as they had urged him to send away the hungry crowds before the feeding of the 5000.

Despite his first inclination, Jesus comes to recognize, not a “house-dog’ but a faithful, loving woman in her human dignity, precious and beloved of God along with all his children. Jesus recognizes a broader vision of his own mission to all, regardless of gender, culture, nationality or religion. Drawing from the gospels, Pope Francis’ “three pillars” are: a passion for those on the periphery, reaching out to “the other” and above all, mercy as the cornerstone.

For us the question is, will we behave like the disciples or like Jesus in this gospel? Will we offer Christ-like welcome or unformed disciple-like rejection?

Deacon Mark Kelly