O Woman, Great Is Your Faith

Aug. 16, 2026

The Gospel today presents a very problematic image of Jesus. He is travelling with His disciples and encounters a Canaanite woman. Naming her as Canaanite means that she is a pagan. Before the Hebrews had conquered the nation and renamed it "Israel," it was known as the Land of Canaan. The Canaanites were an African people originally from Ethiopia. She came to Jesus because her daughter was possessed by a demon.
   
Jesus’ initial response to her is shocking. He said that He had come only for the lost sheep of Israel and that it was not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs. A popular racist term for the Canaanites was to call them dogs. She responded that even the dogs receive the scraps from the children’s table. Jesus saw her great faith and healed her daughter. He acknowledged that her faith was why her daughter was healed.

We often miss the relationship between the different groups in Jesus’ time. The Hebrews were a conquered people and were oppressed by the Romans. And the foreigners in their midst were often treated better than they. The Hebrews resented this deeply and thought of these pagan neighbors as unclean. In the early Church, there was a mix of the Jews and Gentiles, and this often caused problems. By this story, we are being shown that Jesus welcomed both Jews and Gentiles. The Jews were welcomed because of the Law of Moses that they followed. The Gentiles were welcomed because of their faith.
—Fr. Mike Comer