In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

This Gospel reading today is important for us to remember because it’s connected also with what the Apostle Paul has just said to us. He said that he considers himself to be the foremost of sinners. He talks about the patience, and the love of the Lord with him because he is the foremost of sinners. We know from the Acts of the Apostles, and other writings also, details about his life which will indicate why he would call himself foremost of sinners. Yet, I would also say that he is foremost of repenters.

His life was turned about with his co-operation. That’s what this repentance means. His life was turned about, and instead of persecuting the Gospel, he proclaimed the Gospel most effectively. He’s an example, of course, for you, and for me because of this way of the Lord of turning us about from darkness to light, from death to life, from fear to love. This is what happened to the Apostle Paul. This is what happens to you, and to me in the course of our lives. I don’t suppose that many of us necessarily have quite so dramatic an event happening to us as the Apostle Paul did on the road to Damascus, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are turning our lives about to Him.

What did the Apostle Paul do in the course of his life? He was primarily known for preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, or to the non-Jews, that is. Always, however, in the Acts of the Apostles, he goes first to the synagogues, and then to the Gentiles. This is important for us to remember because there is a correct order to everything. He goes first to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles. All of these things are exactly reflecting what happens today in the Gospel. Here we have the Lord, having withdrawn from the Lake of Galilee area, going into the region of Tyre, and Sidon. This area is now known as Lebanon. This is the known time when the Saviour withdraws into non-Jewish territory, and He encounters there, of course, a Canaanite woman. If you hear the word “Canaanite”, it means the original inhabitants of that area of Palestine before the Jewish people came there. It always implies that this person is likely to be a pagan. This Canaanite woman comes to the Saviour today, and she is begging for the release of her daughter from slavery to a demon (at least one – we don’t know what the number is, and it doesn’t matter). He answers her not a word at the beginning. Why? Because the Lord is, in the first place, a Jew living in a Jewish society, living according to the Law. He could not properly speak to this Canaanite woman because she was a pagan outside of the house of faith, as it were. It was not correct for Him to speak to her. You still get this today: in an Islamic society, a man cannot speak to just any woman, and I suppose, it goes the other way around, too. There are only certain people you can speak to under certain circumstances. This “who you can talk to” was very regulated in Jewish society.

He answers her not a word, and she keeps on insisting. His disciples were saying: Do something because she is after us all the time. Then He speaks to her in a way that we (such politically-correct-type Canadians) are often offended about, because He uses this expression: “It is not good to take the children’s bread, and throw it to the dogs” (i.e. according to the Jewish reckoning, a person such as she would be like a dog). It was a very insulting thing to say. Yet, because she obviously had encountered Him somehow, and been touched by Him somehow, and had heard his words somehow, she knows that this Person could help her daughter. Out of love for her daughter, and confidence in Him, she begs Him some more, and says: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table”. Remember that immediately the Lord says: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire”. Her daughter is immediately healed.

The Lord, in this encounter, by going to Lebanon, by talking to this Canaanite woman, and by healing her daughter, is preparing the way already for what the Apostle Paul, and all the Apostles also, were going to be doing after Pentecost. It was definitely not only the Apostle Paul that was going to the Gentiles. The Apostle Thomas, for example, went to India, and also to parts of Africa. The others went to many other places, and that’s another story. The Lord is preparing for what was going to happen, and He is exactly, in His own way, showing WHO HE IS right now. Who is He? We heard it already in the verses on “Alleluia”; we hear it every night at Vespers: He is a “Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of the Israelite people” (cf. Luke 2:32). He is the “Light to lighten the Gentiles”, and He certainly brought light to the life of this Canaanite woman, and brought light to her daughter who was possessed by a demon. This is not ever a pleasant condition, because people who are in such a condition are enslaved to fear. You know that fear is the opposite of love. God is love. What is the opposite down below? It’s not hatred – it’s fear. People who are enslaved to Mr. Down Below are enslaved to fear. This daughter will have been released from fear this day by the Saviour into the light, and the freedom of His love.

You, and I are released in the same way by the Saviour from the fears that beset us in our daily lives. He sets you, and me free, also, with the daughter of this Canaanite woman. If we have the faith of this Canaanite woman on behalf of those who are in need whom we know, the Lord will hear us also. He will hear our cries on behalf of other people whom we know who are enslaved by fear. He will bring them also, by our prayers, to the light. I have known this to be the case many times in my life (not because of me), but because of how I have seen other people pray. There are people in our diocese (and outside our diocese) who know how to intercede for other people, and they do so. They seriously care about other people, and they pray for people they love. I have seen how their prayers bear fruit. Their prayers really do bear fruit. Your prayers bear fruit, too. When you are bringing those whom you love, those who are in need before the Lord, you don’t always necessarily see it immediately, but those prayers do bear fruit.

You, and I are the inheritors of this promise of the enlightenment of the Gentiles (at least most of us are), and it is important for us to give glory to the Lord for His love for us, for His care for us, for His patience with us, as He has patience with the Apostle Paul. He has patience with you, and me, too, because He is love. I noticed when I was coming in that you have a whole series of lectures coming on the topic of love. You couldn’t do better for a subject. When you are studying love, and its work, you are studying the Lord, Himself. You are opening your hearts to the Lord, Himself. You are uniting yourselves to the Lord, Himself. You will be the better equipped in this love to be a light shining in this city, which needs so much the light of the love of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. (It used to have lots of it, but forgot it.) It’s time for us to bring it back. That’s why we’re here.

Let’s ask the Lord to give us the strength, the heart, the joy, the focus, and the determination to live our lives in the context of this Life-giving, liberating love which He so abundantly pours on us. Let us ask the Lord to enable us to show Him in His love to the people around us by how we, ourselves, live in life, love, joy, freedom, peace, gentleness, long-suffering, and goodness. People around us will take hope, and find the Saviour if they can see this in us. Let us ask the Lord to multiply these fruits of the Holy Spirit in us, so that our lives, glorifying Him, may also help other people come with us to glorify Him: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America