20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) – August 20, 2020

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

Man On the Moon

Like I mentioned last week, for several weeks the Church places before our attention the topic of “faith.” Can we place our “faith” in this Jesus that we’ve been hearing so much about? In other words, can we trust him, can we entrust our lives to him? And the image we used is the image of getting into the wheelbarrow, right? Charles Blondin, the very famous acrobat, walked across the tightrope over Niagara Falls, could even do it with a wheelbarrow full of rocks. But when he asked someone to get in the wheelbarrow, no one would. Right? Ok, that’s an image of how we can all be fans of Jesus, a crowd that shows up to listen and watch…but maybe we haven’t yet “gotten in the wheelbarrow.” In other words, maybe we haven’t yet truly entrusted our lives to him. Or more commonly, we entrust some parts of our life to him…just not others.

But some people shut this conversation down completely—you know them. They’re ruled the idea of faith, God—they’ve ruled it out! And not because they hate God, but because there is this idea that we’ve outgrown him. We’re passed the need for it. So why would we “entrust” our life to him. It feels like a sellout. Why would we go to Mass? It’s boring. On and on.

There was this one time I was having a conversation with this guy about faith (you dress like this, it’s what people talk about), and he was pretty obviously not on board with the whole Jesus, and church, and faith thing. And so he said this, trying to prove his point:“Don’t you realize that man has been to the moon?”In other words, he was cleverly trying to say, “Why do you believe this? Why do you believe in God? What do you have ‘faith’? With all that we’ve discovered, all the progress we have made, why do you need this? Don’t you realize that man has been to the moon? Don’t you realize that we don’t need ‘God’?”

And I get where he’s coming from. Because it’s a very common thing that people think. We think that God, and faith, and church—it’s not necessary anymore. It’s only for people that can’t “hack it” in the real world. We’ve made tons of advances in science and technology, and we don’t need to rely on this “God thing.” God, and faith, and church—that’s for people that can’t get their life together. “Don’t you realize man has been to the moon?” Everything we need we can provide for ourselves. We don’t need “God” anymore. So to entrust your life to God—it feels like you’re selling out, giving up, stepping back—becoming a non-contributing zero in society.

Have You Been to the Moon?

But the funny thing—funny to me, anyway—it’s like we’re just talking passed one another. Because there is this confusion between “human progress” or “technological progress,” and progress in the human condition. I don’t care who has been to the moon, going to the moon doesn’t change the human condition. I don’t care which iteration of the iPhone we’re on, human condition hasn’t change. It’s easy to hide behind this idea of “progress” and at the same time forget that we’re not some autonomous gods now. We’re utterly dependent. Utterly dependent.

We’re dependent on so much, and we don’t even recognize it. We’re dependent on others for food: COVID showed us that, everyone freakout out at the first hint of a food shortage. We’re dependent on others for water: remember when the water main broke and we realized that without that we have no access to clean water? Electricity: power went out for an hour on Saturday morning and everyone thought the world was ending. Health: do you know how many people in here would not be here if it weren’t for some huge advances in medicine that are routine now? I can keep going! But here’s the point: we are not some autonomous, self-sustaining, self-generating creature. We’re not. It’s the human condition to depend, to entrust our life to others for our very survival. And we know that.

The Core Condition

“Well, that’s all well and good, Father. So yeah, I depend on lots of people. But that doesn’t mean I need the whole God thing.”

Ok, but here’s the thing: what about those situations where you have no control? Situations where we are powerless to do anything? Like, in particular, terminal illness, suffering, tragedy, death? One of my favorite authors, I’ve quoted this before, but she wrote: “Have you every buried someone you love? If you haven’t, you will. And you will know the sting of death unclose and personal” (Fleming Rutledge). Suffering, terminal illness, tragedy, death—this is the big problem of the human condition. And going to the moon doesn’t change that.

We talked about this during “Rerouting…” back in the spring. “Why is everything so messed up?” Why? Scripture tells the story of how humanity, in the beginning, rebelled. Humanity said, “We don’t need God. We can do this on our own. ‘God’ is holding us back.” And through a life like that, by “eating that fruit” we sold ourselves into captivity to a power against which we cannot compete. Scripture, in particular St. Paul, calls this, “The power, the dominion, the lordship, the government of Death.” So the issue isn’t just “dying.” The issue is that Death, a real spiritual power, a darkness, an enemy—the Enemy has captured us, placed us under his power, his minion called Death…and we are powerless to stop it. We have made so much progress in life and in the world—thanks be to God! But this? This is something we can’t ever fix. Because this is something more powerful than any of us.

Again, it’s a state of captivity. We’re trapped in the house of someone who will use us and abuse us, and we can’t get out. This is the one thing we cannot fix, no matter how much progress we make. 

The Canaanite Woman’s Faith

Ok, with that in mind, listen again to the story of the Canaanite woman. This woman runs up to Jesus is begins pleading with him, “Have pity on me, Lord! Kyrie eleison!” Ok, what’s her deal? “My daughter is tormented by a demon.” Timeout: not everyone is Catholic, but it doesn’t matter what you are—when people are possessed or experiencing demonic things, they always call the Catholics. Can’t tell you all the random people that need houses blessed because of strange things happening in their house or to them…stories for a different day! But here’s this woman, and she’s run into a problem she can’t fix, a situation over which she has no control. And no one has been able to help her! Because just like Death, just like the Enemy himself, we have zero ability to deal with that! Like, where do you even start? Anyway.

So this woman goes to the one person that can help her. And Jesus tells her how it’s not yet time for his mission to the Gentiles, and there’s this back and forth. But at the end, she simply says, “Lord, help me. Kyrie, boethei moi. Lord, rescue me!” She places her life, her daughter’s life, into Jesus’ hands. This one, this man, this Jesus—she entrusts everything to him. And how does Jesus respond? “Woman, great is your faith.” Ok? Once again, like last week—last week, Peter got in trouble not because he was scared, but because he didn’t have faith. This week, this woman is commended not because she knows Jesus has great power, but because she has faith, she trusts, entrusts her life and the life of her daughter to Christ.

Faith: Humbly Entrusting Our Life to Him

Whether you realize it or not, that’s why we come here every Sunday. Why are you here? Why did you come today? Why do we come to Mass? Because this man has shown himself to be the only one that can overcome the problem of the human condition, of our captivity. How? He rose from the dead. Jesus isn’t just able to cast out demons, heal the sick—Jesus is able to conquer death itself, “Jesus Christ is risen!” This is why Easter is the central and highest feast of our year. This is why Jesus’ death and resurrection stand at the center of everything we do as Christians. This is why Mass is so important: because on the altar, the Paschal Mystery, his death and resurrection become present. We partake in that! This isn’t just a nice time to listen to Fr. Michael, no! This is the time we come to participate, to share in the victory over Death itself. St. Paul, “Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 

And so Mass isn’t the time we come to get something. Mass is the time we come to imitate this woman. Notice what goes on in this scene. She comes, and pretty much the first thing she says, “Kyrie eleison! Lord, have mercy.” Sound familiar? Next thing she does? “The woman came and did him homage.” Terrible translation: “The woman came and worshipped him.” What is the central act of the Mass for us? We kneel down in worship of Jesus Christ, present here. And right before receiving him, we pray, “Lord, I am not worthy…but only say the word and [I shall be healed].”

What we do here at Mass is the supreme expression of what we should be doing in our lives each day, in prayer each day: begging the Lord for mercy, to save us, to rescue us. Entrusting our lives into his hands. Giving our lives to the one that can save us, rescue us, even from Death itself.

Yeah, we don’t just pray for a new car and then get mad at God when we don’t get a new car. But when we humbly entrust everything, every part of our lives to him—that is great faith. We can all celebrate how amazing it is that we have been to the moon, solved so many problems. And yet, even more so, we celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord—until he comes again. Our job, again, is to get in the wheelbarrow, entrust our life to him.