{"id":3189,"date":"2023-08-20T05:55:42","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T05:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=3189"},"modified":"2023-08-20T05:55:42","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T05:55:42","slug":"twentieth-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=3189","title":{"rendered":"Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah 56:1,6-7<\/strong>
Matthew 15:21-28<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years in monastic life I have gradually gathered a set of personals tools to help me engage with Scripture. Some of these tools involve close analysis of the text and some are more obviously creative. I have learnt the value of stepping back from a passage and seeing it in the context of the whole Gospel. If you read through the Gospels systematically and focus on the texts where woman speak you’ll find you have a fairly small list. This has encouraged me to pay very close attention to what is said and how it is said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is often the case, the woman in today’s passage is unnamed. What is significant for Matthew is that she is a gentile, a Canaanite woman. Hearers of Matthew’s Gospel will already have had their ears tuned to the part that Gentile women played in the story of salvation. Matthew’s genealogy contains four women who were either Gentile or became associated with the Gentile world: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. That Matthew names these women and by implication their complex stories heartens me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I come to look closely at today’s text I hear the Canaanite woman’s dialogue with Jesus as part of the tradition of the bold and brave women who have already shaped our story of salvation. Their faith and tenacity mattered. That the woman argues with Jesus and appears to win speaks to me of an adult faith where there is room to question and argue. The Penny Catechism of my childhood had everything laid out in such a watertight way. It was only in adulthood that I dared to ask ‘But what if…?’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canaanite woman comes to plead for her sick daughter. She is deterred neither by Jesus’ silence nor by his stating of his mission: ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.\u2019\u00a0Jesus sees her. He sees her faith. Her plea is granted. She now takes her place among the women whose lives and faith have shaped salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you picture yourself like the woman pleading with Jesus?
For whom would you plead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 56:1,6-7Matthew 15:21-28 Over the years in monastic life I have gradually gathered a set of personals tools to help me engage with Scripture. Some of these tools involve close analysis of the text and some are more obviously creative. I have learnt the value of stepping back from a passage and seeing it in … <\/p>\n

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