AUGUST 16, 2026 MSGR. SAM BIANCO
“Let it be done for you.”
My brothers and sisters, we who are Christians are here today, in no small part, because of this woman. Indeed, I would go on to say that the Gospel is open to everyone in the world because of the part played by this woman.
Bear with me for a moment. Imagine, if you will, and it’s not hard, an Iranian, a Palestinian, an American, and an Israeli coming together, and one person from that group is in desperate need and great trouble. And that person, perhaps it’s a woman, looks among the other three groups, and she sees someone there who has great power for healing, maybe a doctor, maybe a surgeon, maybe someone who can help her desperately. And so, she leaps across the bounds that have separated these four nations at this particular moment in history, and she reaches out and cries for help.
And this one person from the group who has many good qualities but some cultural limitations is, at first, slow to react. And then, he does respond, and he heals, and he brings her daughter to life. I use that because that’s part of the image I have of the two main characters we have in the Gospel today.
The person was first a Canaanite, and the Canaanites and the Jews, for a thousand years, had fought each other. The Canaanites were pagan, they believed in Baal, the Jews believed in one God, Jehovah, and they fought each other; they destroyed each other’s sanctuaries, they had tremendous hostility and great, great hatred for one another. And out of that, this Canaanite culture, comes a woman– who asserts herself and places herself before Jesus.
She’s there, then there’s Jesus. And this is Jesus in the fullness of his being; he’s God, but he’s also a human being, one like us in all things, but sin. And as a human being, he carries with him all the realities that come from his time, his culture, and his place, with both its strengths and its limitations.
And so, they engage one another, and the engagement takes place in the form of four times the word ‘answer’. When the first time the woman makes the plea, it says that Jesus gave no answer at all. He ignored her completely. And then the disciples got upset and said, “Tell her to stop shouting at us.”
And so, the second time he answered, and said, “I wasn’t sent to work among the Canaanite people and the pagans; that wasn’t my mission, my mission is to the people of Israel.” The woman doesn’t stop. So, the third answer that Jesus gives is an answer that only can be described as a cultural one, with limitations he insults her by using a dog. I mean, that’s one of the ways they talked to one another in different religions; it’s a real put-down.
And then, the fourth answer comes, and it comes after the wit and the power of that woman, of not giving up. And she responds to Jesus, and his fourth answer to her is, “Your faith is really great. Let it be done for you as you wish.”
There are two stories here we need to know about. The first is the story about the woman and her desperate need. Obviously, it’s her daughter, her child is possessed, we would say a demon, by psychological things that are destroying her and she hears about this great miracle worker, and she reaches out and pleads with him. In fact, she goes farther than pleading with him.
What changed in this story is this woman. She changed from someone who was hesitant to see and recognize the goodness of Jesus and the power that lay underneath, beneath at the depth of his humanity, the power of God. And so, that’s what her faith is. She calls Jesus, “Lord, son of David;” she sees in him something special, and she adores and worships it. So, the woman didn’t stay fixed. Yes, she was in need, but she cried out and reached for Jesus.
The second reality and this is the marvellous part of the story, is Jesus changed in his humanity. He worked within the limitations of his time and culture. Because that woman, her wit, her persistence, her need, she made Jesus change his mind. And from that moment on, Jesus is not just concerned with saving the Jews and the Israelites; through him, the apostles will go out to all the world, and that’s vitally important to you and to me.
Let me put it this way: you and I all know that there are tremendous barriers that are separating people, by religion, by race, by culture, by traditions and traditions can be good, but if they freeze people into hostility, they need to be broken through.
What caused the breakthrough here? This one particular woman. She did it by her strength, her courage, her need, her crying out, and her wit. She outwitted Jesus in dialogue. And the second thing that matters is that Jesus changed his mind and he responded to her and to her needs.
That means that all people, no matter of what background, if they open their hearts to goodness, to God, as best they can see God, then, indeed, healing is possible. It’s possible to override the bounds of race and culture and creed and see the goodness and the presence of God in all things.
