Breakthrough

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 15:21-28), our Lord speaks to a woman in need with words that sound cruel: essentially calling her a dog.

She, for her part, was a woman of great faith and insight, persevering in the face of words that would have made many respond in anger or slink away in despair.

Our Lord, of course, saw that faith from the beginning and used her to give his disciples a powerful lesson: parroting their words to break through the prejudice of their culture and demonstrate that people they call dogs are capable of great faith and wondrous things.

Prejudice or apathy, anger or despair – whatever blocks us from living out the truth and love of Christ, may Christ break through with the power of his grace.