http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081714.cfm
I think that
it is safe to say that we have all experienced that awful feeling of being
rejected. Some have experienced it more
than others, but it seems to be something all humans experience. It can start out when we are children and a
sibling or a cousin no longer wants to play with us or we get in a fight with a
friend at school and we don’t talk for a few days. As we get older, maybe someone we have a
romantic crush on rejects us. Perhaps a
friend or someone we trust betrays us in some way. Maybe we are not chosen for something that we
had really hoped for. Sometimes that
feeling of rejection is short lived and the relationship is healed over
time. Other times the rejection and the
hurt remain and we need to seek healing and forgiveness to get past it
all.
Of course, we
can also be mistaken about the rejection.
It is very easy to misinterpret a person’s actions or inactions as a
rejection of us or something about us.
In reality it might be that the other person simply forgot something or misunderstood
something or is doing things differently than we would do them. Whatever the details, we thought there was a
rejection when there really was not.
I think that
is exactly what happens at times in our relationship with God. Perhaps we ask God for something, but then He
never seems to answer us. Maybe we’re
used to a feeling of peace when we pray, but suddenly we experience none of
that in prayer. Sometimes we have these
times when it feels like God is not listing to us or doesn’t seem to be active
in our lives; it is very tempting to assume that God has rejected us in some
way. I get the impression that some
people assume that God will reject them because of their sins; as if they are
unworthy of His love. They may even
imagine that if they had a chance to talk directly with Jesus about this, the
conversation would go very similar to the first part of the conversation that
we hear between Jesus and the Canaanite woman in the Gospel today. What an awful feeling of rejection that would
be: going before Jesus with a request as noble as the woman’s request of
healing her daughter, only to have Jesus turn His nose up at her and liken her
to a common dog!
God would
never reject us, of course. Our faith
tells us that God will always love us. In
just the same way, Jesus does not reject the Canaanite woman. In fact, many Scripture scholars believe that
Jesus had no intention of rejecting the woman or denying her request. The reason He uses that lines about being
only sent for the “lost sheep” and not throwing the children’s food “to the
dogs” was because He wanted the woman to respond with her faith. As a Canaanite, the woman didn’t share the
Jewish faith of Jesus and His disciples, yet she acknowledges Him as the “Son
of David” and calls Him “Lord” and asks for the miracle. Jesus knew she had faith that He could do it,
but He wanted the others to see her express her faith, so He puts her to a kind
of test. If her faith were not real, she
probably would have given up once she saw that Jesus wasn’t making it easy for
her. But she does have faith, and so she
keeps asking for her daughter’s salvation even with the difficulties.
Likewise, God
wants us to respond with faith at times as well. God has His reasons for seeming to avoid or
delay answering our prayers. He also has
His reasons for not always being so present in our lives or seeming to have
moved out of our lives at times. We
might not ever figure out exactly why those sorts of things happen. Maybe God wants us to move deeper in our
faith, so He moves away for a bit and wants us to follow, much like a parent
teaching their child to walk for the first time. God might delay a response to our prayers
because He wants to see how our faith responds to a delay in our plans. God might also know that what we ask for
isn’t really what we need right now anyway, so He gives us something else that
will help our faith grow all the more.
Whatever the case may be, God isn’t rejecting us or our request, but is
giving us the opportunity to grow deeper in our faith with Him.
God calls each
and every one of us to a deeper relationship with Him. That is what we see going on in the first
reading from the Prophet Isaiah. As I
mentioned before, sometimes we might be scared that we are not worthy of God’s
love or worthy to have God listen to our prayers. In ancient times, the Israelites believed
that God only found the prayers and sacrifices of the Israelites to be worthy
of Him. Yet here, God says that those
who follow the Sabbath and love His name and keep His covenant will be found
acceptable. Even “foreigners who join
themselves to the Lord” are acceptable.
God’s house is a house of prayer for all peoples. So why should we worry ourselves if our
prayers will be accepted as well? We are
to have faith.
I mentioned at
the beginning of this homily about people in general having felt rejected in
their lives. While we do all know what
rejection feels like, I hope this homily helps everyone realize that we do not
have to let that fear of being rejected rule us: especially when it comes to
our relationship with God. God wants us
to grow deeper in our relationship with Him, and just as every relationship
requires the individuals to grow in certain ways, so must we. Let us not fear, but continue in our faith. God will be there.
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