In the Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel reading, we see four important virtues for all of us to emulate: faith, courage, humility, and hope. First, faith. As a Canaanite, this woman was a non-Jew, a pagan who worshipped false gods rather than the true God of Israel. And yet, through the experience of suffering and desperation because of her daughter’s condition, she has come to believe in this God-man she has heard about. It is shocking for her to call Jesus, “Lord” and “Son of David,” recognizing His divine identity. Her suffering and desperation have made her sensitive to the divine presence of Jesus. Her pain has made her transcend her paganism and has driven her out of the slavery to all the empty things she worshipped before, and into the strong arms of mercy Himself. Suffering and desperation in our lives can do this for us, too, if we allow it. Suffering can either move us closer to God or further away from Him. Suffering endured with greatness of soul raises us above ourselves and moves us toward God, just like this woman going out in search of the Lord in the midst of her suffering.
The next virtue we see in this woman is courage. She puts aside all cultural and societal conventions—everything that would be expected of her—to get close to Jesus. Even the disciples were annoyed with her loud movement toward Him. But because of her faith, she has the courage to do whatever it takes to get to Jesus, to overcome the distance and even the people standing in her way to bring her needs before Him. And even when Jesus responds to her first with silence and then with an apparent rebuke, still she persists; still she pursues Him. Her courage in overcoming the obstacles to encountering the Lord should inspire and challenge us. We must persevere over the obstacles in our culture—and even sometimes in our Church—to get to Jesus. We must also have the courage to persevere in prayer when the Lord is silent or when it seems like He is turning us away.
The next movement we see from this woman is that she does Jesus “homage,” which usually means an act of reverence, such as prostration, lying flat on the ground. At this point, she says simply, “Lord, help me.” And to test her humility, Jesus says to her shockingly, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” But rather than being offended and arguing against Him, the woman accepts this, essentially saying, “You are right. I am nothing before you. I am not even a Jew. I am a pagan.”
And then, the final virtue, hope. Despite everything to the contrary, she continues to believe that the Lord will not refuse her humble plea. He is her Lord, too, and if she persists in her prayer, the Lord will help her somehow, someway. “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” And Jesus’ wonderful response: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.”
In this woman’s response to Jesus, she longs even for the scraps, the crumbs that fall from the master’s table. She knows that even the tiniest amount of food, the small act of grace from Jesus would be enough. As we celebrate this Mass, the “crumbs” from the table in heaven fall down upon this altar in the Eucharist. As small and insignificant as the consecrated host may seem, we know that even the smallest crumb of the Eucharist is the whole Christ—body, blood, soul, and divinity. Even if we were to only receive a tiny crumb, we would receive the fullness of Christ’s presence and grace. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like God is listening to us or responding to our prayers. But we know that God continues to give Himself to us in so many ways, especially in the Eucharist. And that is what we really need. The answer to all of our prayers is ultimately God Himself. And here He is, giving Himself to us. Even the tiniest amount of God’s grace is everything that we need. Let us be inspired by this woman’s faith, courage, humility, and hope. Let us realize how the Lord is giving Himself to us in answer to our prayers. He might test our faith, just like He did with the Canaanite woman. But He never refuses us when we come to Him with faith, courage, humility, and hope.
Total Surrender 
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