Catholic world 

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading Is 22:19-22 The Lord appoints Eliakim over the house of Judah

Second Reading Rom 11:33-36 Who knows the mind of God?

Gospel Mt 16:13-20 Who do people say I am?

REFLECTION by Fr Michael Tate

A pagan woman approaches a Jewish man and she begs Jesus to heal her daughter.

Jesus gives a dismissive answer to the woman: ‘It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the house dogs.’ The children are obviously the Jewish people.

This remarkable pagan woman stands her ground and engages in a verbal joust with Jesus! She argues: ‘Yes, Lord, but even the house dogs get the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’

Jesus recognises her faith and the daughter was healed. This story was put in the Gospels to show how Jesus extended his saving mission to non-Jews in Pagan territory.

That is Good News for billions of non-Jewish people over the course of history since then and into the future. That is why we are truly ‘Catholic’, which, as you know, is the Greek for ‘world-wide’.

We could pause for a moment to celebrate this Canaanite woman as the first ‘Catholic’!