Dear Parishioners,
Faith That Refuses to Give Up: Homily on Matthew 15:21–28, Is 56:1,6-7;Rom 11:13-15,29-32
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
A mother was teaching her son how to pray.
One evening she said, “Malik”, always remember: when you need something, ask God. He hears your prayers.”
That night, Malik knelt beside his bed and prayed loudly:
“Dear God, please give me a new bicycle for my birthday.”
His mother smiled and said, “Malik, you don’t have to pray so loudly. God isn’t hard of hearing.”
Johnny replied: “I know, Mom. But grandma is in the next room—and she is hard of hearing!”
Sometimes our prayers are like that! We pray with great confidence when we want something desperately. But what happens when God does not answer immediately? Do we continue praying, or do we give up?
Today’s Gospel gives us a beautiful answer. A Canaanite woman comes to Jesus with a broken heart. Her daughter is suffering terribly. She cries, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!” But at first, Jesus is silent. The disciples become impatient and say, in effect, “Send her away!” Yet she does not go away. She comes closer, kneels before Jesus, and offers one of the shortest and most powerful prayers in the entire Bible: “Lord, help me!”
Finally, Jesus says to her, “Woman, great is your faith!” And her daughter is healed.
What made her faith so great? First, her faith was persistent.
She faced silence, rejection, and discouragement—but she refused to stop trusting. Many of us pray once or twice and then say, “God did not answer me.” But this woman teaches us that God’s silence is not necessarily God’s absence.
The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” Sometimes we do not understand why God delays an answer. Only later do we discover that, even in the silence, God was strengthening our faith.
Perhaps you have been praying for a child, for healing, for peace in your family, for a job, or for someone who has left the Church. Do not give up! Keep praying. Keep trusting. Keep coming to Jesus.
Second, her faith was humble. She does not demand a miracle. She simply kneels and says, “Lord, help me.”
That is the heart of true prayer. We do not come before God because we deserve everything. We come because we know that God is merciful.
Third, her faith was greater than the barriers around her. She was a Canaanite woman—an outsider in the eyes of many. The disciples wanted to send her away. But Jesus reveals that God’s mercy cannot be confined within human boundaries. Her remarkable faith becomes a powerful sign that God’s compassion reaches beyond every barrier.
And here is the most beautiful insight of today’s Gospel: This woman asks only for crumbs, but Jesus gives her a miracle.
She says, “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” She asks for a crumb of mercy—but she discovers that the table of God’s mercy is overflowing!
How often we come to God asking for only a little hope, a little strength, a little peace. But our God is a God of abundance. St. Paul reminds us that God can do far more than we can ask or imagine.
My dear friends, perhaps today you feel that God is silent. Perhaps you have prayed for years and nothing seems to change. Learn from this Canaanite mother. Do not let God’s silence stop your prayer. Do not let disappointment destroy your faith. Do not let difficulties separate you from Christ.
When you have many words, pray. When you have no words left, pray as she prayed:
“Lord, help me.”
And remember: a delayed answer is not always a denied answer. Sometimes God is working in ways we cannot yet see.
May we have the persistence of this mother, the humility of this woman, and the courage to keep believing. And one day, may we hear Jesus say to us:
“Great is your faith!”
Amen.