AUGUST 5, 2026 FATHER JOHN BERTAO
Let me just maybe very quickly recap in a very, very short way the reflection on today’s Gospel, to put us sort of in the frame of mind of the Gospel account and hopefully, to help you with a wider view of what took place 2,000 years ago.
A Canaanite woman asks Jesus to have pity on her. Her daughter is tormented by a demon. Her daughter’s pain is torture to her as a loving mother. Jesus doesn’t answer at first, and when he does, it’s not the response that she wants. In delaying his healing, he helped the mother realize her faith. That’s sort of in a nutshell.
You see, friends, this passage describes the only occasion in which Jesus ministered to outside of Jewish territory. As you might know, Tyre and Sidon were about 50 miles north of Israel and still exist today in modern Lebanon.
A Gentile woman, a foreigner who was not a member of the Jewish people, puts Jesus on the spot by pleading for his help. At first, Jesus seemed to pay no attention to her, and this made the disciples feel embarrassed. After all, he was helping so many people, so why not help her? Jesus does this to test the woman and awaken the faith in her.
The writer Don Schwager, he’s a Daily Scripture reader and writer, whose gospel reflections I enjoy very much, writes why Jesus used the expression of “throwing bread to the dogs” in relationship to a woman’s daughter, and he explains. He explains that Jews, often spoke of Gentiles with arrogance and ruthlessness as unclean dogs, since the Gentiles did not follow God’s commands and were excluded from God’s covenant and favour with the people of Israel.
For the Greeks, the dog was a symbol of dishonour and was used to describe a shameless and audacious woman. There is another reference to dogs in Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus says to his disciples, “Do not give to dogs what is holy.”
Jesus tests this woman’s faith, so, if she is sincere in receiving holy things from the hand of God because it’s so special. Jesus, no doubt, spoke with a smile rather than an insult because this woman immediately responds with wit and faith, in saying and her response being that even the dogs eat the crumbs.
The happy ending is that Jesus praises the Gentile woman for her faith and for her love. She made the misery of her child her own, and she was willing to suffer refusal in order to obtain healing for the daughter she loved so much. She also had strong persistence. Her faith grew in constant with the person of Jesus. She began with a request, and she ended on her knees in the worshipful praise of the living God. So, then, she realized Jesus is the Son of God.
No one who ever saw Jesus with earnest faith, whether Jew or Gentile, was ever refused his help. That includes us, too, even today. So, do you seek the Lord Jesus with expectant faith?
Short story. Some years ago, I was having coffee with a friend, and a lady who I saw at Mass on a regular basis came over to say what I thought was a very quick, simple hello. She approached and apologized for interrupting. She had been trying to get my attention outside the church, and this was an ideal opportunity for her to do so.
The friend who I was with, also was not a Catholic, suggested I tell her that it’s my day off. I suggested she sit with us on my day off. In brief, she explained that she was married to a non-Catholic, who sometimes comes to Mass with her, but not often. She told him that he was not allowed to receive Holy Communion. He was not very happy at first and said some very nasty things about the Catholic Church.
She was very hurt, yet, at the same time, she loved him very, very much, as he was a very good man, but not Catholic, although the two of them did pray together on a regular basis. Her question was, what will happen to his soul when he dies? And do only Catholics go to heaven? This was her question.
My suggestion was that God loves everybody, including her husband, as well, no matter what. She was so happy to hear that God loves all of us, including her non-Catholic husband.
I suggested that she take time to explain the Mass to her husband and the other sacraments that we celebrate in the Catholic Church, in the Catholic faith. She agreed, and after spending time in prayer, as well as looking up various sources on the sacramental life, so as to educate herself first before she talked to him about it, she then explained everything to him, and he, from what I hear, understood and was happy to understand that and learn about it.
You see, his attitude changed. The next step was to embrace the Catholic faith, and the rest is history. The lady left. I could tell that my friend, after witnessing what had taken place, had many, many questions for me.
The first one was, “How can God love everyone? Does that include me, as well? I’m not a Catholic either.” I smiled and I said, “Yes, even you.”
His other statement was, “No wonder you don’t take a day off; you love what you do very much.” All I could do was to smile and think of Jesus and his ministry, doing it all for the kingdom, where he wants all of us to be with him and the Father one day.
Dear friends in Christ, as you and I journey on in life, let us make a difference, starting with ourselves, in being kind to others, not judgmental, but being the reflection of Jesus to those we meet. And remember that God loves each one of us very, very much.
So, let me close with a prayer:
Lord Jesus, your love and mercy know no bounds. May I trust always and pursue you with determined persistence, as this woman did. Increase my faith in your saving power and deliver me and my loved ones from all evil and harm. Amen.
