You are Important to God: Turning Insult into Blessing
Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28
You are important to God. Do not believe the contrary! Just imagine what God has done down memory lane. He went down to Egypt to deliver an enslaved people to make them his own people. That was when the Egyptians considered themselves “almighty”, God lifted Israel from beneath them. When the Israelites considered themselves exceptional, God raised the Babylonians to exile them, to prove that they were nothing without God. The lesson from all these experiences is that God is God of all peoples. Our first reading puts it this way: “for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). Therefore, you are important to God, but God wants you to make that importance non-negotiable—that is the message of this Sunday.
If God declares everyone today as his son and daughter, irrespective of race, language and culture, according to our first reading; if God proclaims his house to be a house of prayer for all peoples, not just for the Jews and the circumcised, but all humanity; then, there is hope for every man and woman who feels defeated by the vagaries of life; those who feel left behind economically and politically; those who feel the weight of their sins, instead of the joy of their redemption and the grace of happiness as sons and daughters of God; indeed, those of us who ardently look for second chances in life, on account of our past failures and infidelity; today, God offers us a clean slate on which to rewrite our lives once again. Today’s message is about humanity’s restoration and restitution to glory. Today is our re-investiture with the regalia of the sons and daughters of God. God refuses to leave us in shame; in fact, he takes away our shame and humiliation and offers us second chances at life, physical life and spiritual restoration. You and I are the new Israel returning from exile, exile of sin and ingratitude for all the blessings we have enjoyed from God; we are invited to reconstruct, to rebuild the ruins of our moral, economic, political and religious decadence. At first, it may appear a humongous project, but the presence of God levels the high planes for us through the gifts of his graces, which are uncountable and beyond measures.
The history of Israel is one of frequent falls, just like ours as individuals and as nations; characteristically, Israel has a strong determination to rise up each again. As a matter of fact, an individual upright Jew can champion the course of the whole nation of Israel. It is not for no reason that one person (Jacob) became a nation—from Jacob, his name became Israel—meaning that the steadfastness of one person can transform a whole nation. Joseph’s fidelity not only saved Israel from starvation, it saved the whole of Egypt and the Pharaohs from extinction. The missionary crusades and the spiritual doggedness of Saul, who became Paul, established a spiritual, intellectual and moral foundation for Christianity. The faith and confession of Peter received the applauds of God himself, in Jesus Christ, and the endorsement of the personality of Peter as the head of the Church. The union between a husband and wife establishes families and descendants, replacing God’s direct action as creator of human beings.
“Yes, we can”, if you and I believe that we are important to God and acted from that importance. This is the affirmation of Paul in our second reading: “God’s gifts and call are IRREVOCABLE” (Romans 11:29). The power of sin, political intrigues, military prowess, and economic maneuvering can never hijack God’s plans for the prosperity of his children. In the midst of persecution and the experience of finitude/finiteness, Paul, in our second reading, proclaims the irrevocability of God’s adoption of every Christian as his child. Even so, in the midst of our sins and political visionlessness, God is still dreaming big for every nation of the world and for every human person. Despite the moral quagmire in which our world is enmeshed, in spite of the intellectual obscurantism of world thinkers, as well as their moral myopic-ness, God is preparing a “little rest or remnant” to salvage his world. God is preparing you and I to save our world and communities; to restore hope and confidence that all is not lost!
Today’s gospel puts all our troubles under one word—insult! How do you and I handle insults? A human being, a Canaanite woman, created to the image and likeness of God, was considered “a dog” by a culture that considered itself superior: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26). You and I are the Canaanite woman being asked to establish our credentials as children of God, not as citizens of an inferior country, culture, race or civilization: it is a question of our humanity vis-à-vis God. In an age of Human Rights, God expects us to claim our rights to divine dignity, just as the Canaanite woman did without fear of contradiction. It was not Jesus who insulted her, the culture of superiority complex did by making her a “dog,” a nobody undeserving of God’s favors and graces. The Canaanite woman asserted her right as a child of God deserving of God’s favors; she requested the healing of her daughter and she got it. So, amid the insults of colonialism, economic strangulations, and moral bankruptcy, are you ready to stand up and make your claims as a child of God? Are you and am I ready to go it alone, if need be, the moral highway, to be another Israel from Jacob, Paul from Saul, Peter from Cephas, Abraham from Abram?
Like the complaining voices of the apostles to Jesus to shut up the Canaanite woman because her noises were nauseating, we hear discouraging voices and thoughts accusing us that we are sinful, that we cannot be any good. However, do we hear the Master’s voice encouraging us to rise up to the occasion, like Michelle Obama puts it, “when they go low, we go high”? What are those discouraging voices, persons and events that make you doubt God and yourself? Why not look at those champions of our faith, who made it despite the contrary views of cynics and manipulators? In the life of Zacchaeus, the insult and accusation of financial misappropriation only brought out the best in him: Zacchaeus stood his ground and made a solemn declaration, “I’ll restore fourfold, if I’ve defrauded anyone!” Do you see how insult is an opportunity to establish faith and declare one’s Christian credential and identity? Do you and I remember our citizenship in God when the odds add up against us, when we are insulted? Can we muster courage and conjure up the little faith we have left, in order to hear Jesus saying to us, in the little good things we do – “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” (Matthew 15:28).
Yes, the age of shame to own up to God and his teaching has expired; the period when people’s insults mattered has elapsed; the moments of listening to the exterior has fully run out on its course; it is high time we paid attention to the inner and interior voice, where God addresses us by name, a name he pronounced himself over us at Baptism, and and we responded appropriately. Human ideologies and agenda, slavery to material and devilish initiatives, imprisonment to fear and discouragement have met their watersheds in the love of God which keeps no records of the past, a fact which shows that this God of ours is one who offers second-chances to us, he is a restorer God, and God of opportunities and possibilities. You and I need only to be pro-active and all is well already!
“Yes, we can”! If insults are occasions to showcase your faith, why get enraged by insults? To become angry at insults is a sign of failure to realize that every cloud has a silver lining; that from even what we consider insulting, something good can come of it. Yes, insults are golden opportunities waiting to be utilized. Sometimes, insults and temptations precede our blessings; the inconvenience of the cross is a precursor to the resurrection, the rain before the clear sky, the storm before the calm; but in all these, God is ever present and watching on to see whether our faith will weather the storm . Indeed, the fear of accident, will never stop people from driving, in the words of the author of the Beautiful Ones are not yet Born.
Assignment for the Week:
Think of an insult or insulting situation you experienced, and see what God is/was saying to you through it.