| " 21 Party there, Jesus withdrew into the territory of Tyre and Sidon. 22 and behold a Canaanite woman came out of those places and began to shout: "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David. My daughter is severely tormented by a demon. " 23 But he said the word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, "Send her away, for crying out after us." 24 But he said: "I I was not sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. " 25 But she came and worshiped him, saying," Lord, help me! " 26 Jesus answered," It is good to take the children's bread and throw it to dogs. " 27 But she said:" You are right, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table. " 28 Then Jesus said unto her, Woman, great is your faith has made you as you want. " And from that moment her daughter was healed. "
The size of universality does not belong to us, is not a feature of our humanity, and indeed our natural feel, our approach to other people's lives radically contradict this dimension. Even in the churches is so, even in our faith. Many expressions of faith actually have nourished and nurture attitudes of closure, intolerance, and sometimes racism. Without going to the affirmation of Sartre's view that "the other is my hell, I must acknowledge that the other, especially when I do not correspond to the sensitivity, manners, culture, habits, causes me discomfort. Only meeting, Indeed the impact with each other at times I can convert. 
In today's story, the drama of a small, obstinate pagan woman are the disciples of Jesus to deal with this problem and then is Jesus himself. Attitude of the disciples is understandable: that Jesus would tisfying of this little woman yelling and disturbing. You know, sister and brother, what bothers us the cries of those who run after us and robs us of our work, our days are so well organized that. The prayer that the disciples Jesus seems to turn to a curse than a prayer. They replied, 'Do something, maestro, let us get rid of this scocciatrice! " Perché vedi, sorella e fratello, a volte vorremmo essere accoglienti, a parole, tolleranti vorremmo essere, sempre disponibili. In realtà la misura della nostra capacità di ascoltare, di dare retta, di offrire tempo ed attenzione è subito colma. "Mandala via, perché ci grida dietro!"
Ma non ci sono soltanto i discepoli, c’è anche Gesù. Il suo atteggiamento ci lascia ancora più sbalorditi. Ci fa male il suo silenzio anzitutto, ci urta vedere Gesù che sembra non volere neppure rispondere. Noi sappiamo che la sofferenza, in particolare la sofferenza di un bambino è un fatto durissimo da accettare, ma ciò che la rende davvero insopportabile è la mancanza assoluta di spiegazioni. E Gesù infatti non risponde: è imbarazzato, insomma. Il suo silenzio sembra tradursi in disinteresse. È terribile il fatto che Gesù non sappia che cosa dire, che appare disarmato, afasico davanti a quel grido di aiuto. Noi siamo abituati, i pastori e i preti per primi, a cercare di rispondere sempre, anche se talvolta con molto imbarazzo. Invece il Dio che Gesù rappresenta non risponde, semplicemente perché non c’è risposta davanti allo scandalo della sofferenza di una bambina. E quando poi vi è costretto la risposta è spaventosa. In realtà non si tratta di una risposta ma di un calcio. Gesù dice: "Non è bene prendere il pane dei figli per buttarlo ai cagnolini". Sarebbe been better if Jesus had listened to the disciples and looking for an excuse, as we often do, had dismissed without offending her, without her, even indirectly, so the dog. There are so many ways, we know, to download the people that we can not assume the problems. Why this rather scathing response to Jesus? "I came to the house of Israel and those I can not take care of the dogs, I have to take care of children." Why? Because the human Jesus of the Gospel is shockingly taken aback by the very small woman insistent that he was accustomed to surprise, to disorient the other, is taken against time for the little pagan woman screaming for her daughter dementia can recover the fullness of life.
short, Jesus is like us. When we are to govern the situations we can be polite, more or less educated, when someone really telling us displace a fragment of truth that irritates us answer full of anger. Here's what happens. Jesus must recognize here that the gospel, the word of truth and redemption of which he will be the sole authentic interpreter, for which accept to die nailed to a pole, this time the word is found in the mouth of the little pagan woman annoying, or maybe Jesus just was not ready, he could not imagine that the gospel ran so fast, that could break in such a short time all the borders, traditions, priorities that were set thousands of years of life and faith of his people. This was the first to Jesus out of Palestine is a kind of reconnaissance that he wanted to do the match. Instead, for the pagan woman the time of waiting has already expired: his daughter is sick today, and the urgency of the grace and mercy that time has already arrived, has already opened, it is already universal in that little prophet of Nazareth who do not is still conscious. Take good care , sister and brother, this Canaanite woman does not call into question the priority or precedence of the people of Israel on way of salvation, no, he is conscious of being a newcomer, having been preceded by many others in the discovery of a God of mercy, and knows that Jesus did not come to remove this before, to cancel, no, you know than that of Israel is the root that brings us and from which it arose also Canaanite woman Jesus knows that in the surprise you find the dimension of grace, we are always preceded by other, Israel, today we might say that the churches battered is given to meet and serve. The woman basically said: Yes, I am a newcomer to the table of grace, I am not asking to sit at the head nor at the table, if there is no place, I just lie down under the table, that table if there is you, Jesus I do not need a large portion of grace, I am just the crumbs that fall from the table, because that is a bit of grace, and grace is not measured, even a fragment, a surplus, a crumb that gather from your hand, dear Jesus, just to build my hope, be enough to return my daughter to life. I know nothing of the catechism of your people, but I recognized the love of God that has taken shape. A piece of you will be enough to live my daughter. Jesus surrenders to the faith of the woman who gives him a new identity and universal identity. The bambina, dopo la parola di Gesù – "la tua fede è grande, ti sia fatto come vuoi" – la bambina è guarita e anche il dolore della madre è guarito, ma in realtà è Gesù ad essere guarito dalla donna: guarito dalla sua paura di aprire i suoi orizzonti. È Gesù qui, in questo testo straordinario, ad essere evangelizzato, a capire quanto sia grande l’evangelo che egli annunzia. L’evangelo non ci dirà più nulla di questa donna, possiamo solo immaginare quanto la vita sua e della figlia che esce dalla follia siano cambiate. Sappiamo però quanto è cambiata la vita di Gesù attraverso quell’incontro, sappiamo che Gesù ha capito, ha capito che il suo amore era ed è for all. And we know that the knowledge we have, the love of God depends on the authenticity of our faith, our service to our witness. Staying alert to let you convert your foreign and different from those people who knock on our doors and our hearts, for those people who often have neither time nor desire to let ourselves be challenged. Well, if this happens every now and then we will learn something of what it means to be "church catholic" or "universal", and grasp something of the revolutionary message of the gospel.
Taken from transmission Evangelism dell'1 gennaio 2011,
www.fedevangelica.it
www.chiesavaldese.org
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