Joke: One day, little Johnny asked his mom for a new bike. His mom said, “At Christmas, you send a letter to Santa to ask for what you want, don’t you?” “Yes,” replied Johnny, “but it isn’t Christmas now.” His mother said, “Then you can send a letter to Jesus and ask him.” Johnny said down with a pen and a piece of paper and started his letter: “Dear Jesus, I’ve been a good boy sometimes and I would like a new bike. Your friend, Johnny.” He thought about this and decided to start over: “Dear Jesus, sometimes I think about being a good boy and I would like a new bike. Your friend, Johnny.” He thought some more and tried again: “Dear Jesus, someday I might be a good boy and I would like a new bike. Your friend, Johnny.” Johnny didn’t like that letter either. Finally, he got a small statue of Mary from the front yard and started his letter again: “Dear Jesus, if you ever hope to see your mom again, send me a new bike! Your friend, Johnny.

In all today’s readings, the Church helps us to understand the kind of faith that the Lord, in his mercy and compassion, cannot turn away but to grant a Canaanite woman what she asks for with her persistence of faith.

In today’s Gospel, a Canaanite woman called out to Jesus, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” Question: Is the demon real? How would we recognize demons in our time, scientific and advanced age?

Demon, at the time of Jesus, was a belief without any scientific proof. People just believed that demons existed when they weren’t advanced in the medical field like we do today. A person who was possessed by a demon couldn’t control herself. She couldn’t say what she wanted to say, and she couldn’t do what she wanted to do. Thanks be to God that she had her mother to intervene for her because of the pain and the torment that her daughter had to suffer. The mother ran to Jesus to ask for help, even though she was a Canaanite woman considered a sinner, a foreigner. Jesus, even though he’s famous for mercy and compassion, still rejected her request saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” How hurtful it was for a mother to bring her daughter to a physician and be rejected to cure her because of a different race and from a different flock.

When we come to God in our prayer, how is it when we pray and pray, and God continuously seems to be absent and hasn’t granted us what we ask for? When we ask and pray and haven’t received any response from God, ask ourselves, “Have I asked or prayed to God what is according to his will or my own will and my desire? Is it right and just to ask God for this and for that for my benefit and my loved ones’ benefit?”

What God promised in the Old Testament that Isaiah reports in today’s first reading saying, “Thus says the LORD: Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.” When we observe what is right and do what is just, God will grant us what we ask for. The Canaanite woman’s request was rejected in today’s Gospel because she might not observe the laws of the Lord, the laws of Moses like the Israelites did. Make no mistake when Jesus responded to her that he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and not for the foreigners. However, this woman, with a strong faith, believed in Jesus’ mercy and compassion, with courage and strength, came to Jesus and did him homage and said, “Lord, help me.” Imagine that we are sinners and we live a sinful life when we pray or even beg God in our prayer, to forgive us our sins and to help us in our needs; and his response to us just as he responds to the woman saying, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” It is not right to grant to the sinner and the one who is not in communion with the Church what she or he asks for. According to our human understanding and the laws, it is not right to forgive the sins of those who are not recognized their false and seek forgiveness or those who are not in communion with the Church, and it’s not just to help those who are separated from the Lord and his Church.

Even though she is rejected by the Lord Jesus several times, her persistent faith, and her firm belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” She truly and humbly acknowledges her sins and asks to receive just a little mercy and compassion from the Lord. What’s a marvelous faith of a sinner that touched the heart of the Lord that he says to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” Great applause from Jesus because of her deep faith in him that he granted her what she wished.

Jesus couldn’t perform many miracles in his hometown for his people, but he was able to perform a healing of a Canaanite woman’s daughter, a foreigner, from the torment of the demon. Why? What is it that touched his marvelous heart to heal a foreigner, a sinner, if it’s not her great persistence of faith in the Lord Jesus? In our Christian life, have we remembered to come to the Lord to seek forgiveness of our sins and trusted in his mercy and forgiveness to forgive us our sins and tried to change and to be better? Or we might be able to say that we forgive this person or that person because of what he or she hurt us this way or that way, but we have difficulty forgetting and still allow the demon possesses our heart and torments us so that we might not be able to see God presents in our midst, and all we see are suffering and tormented in life. Just as the Canaanite woman, with great persistent faith, come to seek help time after time to the point of irritating his disciples that they asked Jesus to grant her what she asked for, so she should stop following them and bothering them. Even at the moment of rejection, at the moment that God seemed to turn away from her, she still had faith and trusted in his mercy and compassion; have we had that firm faith and strong belief in the Lord Jesus when we come to seek for his help and he seems to be absent in our prayer and in partaking at the Eucharistic celebration? If God seems to be absent and doesn’t respond to us in our prayer, in our good deeds, especially in our own need, do we still come to him for help? How is your faith, your belief in him? The decision is yours.