Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Father Kerry Prendiville
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 20, 2023

Jesus had a very specific mission to accomplish during his lifetime on earth. He was to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies and lay the foundation for the worldwide Church. The Church as the sacrament of salvation. He never traveled to different locations like Rome or Spain. He never went to the intellectual cities of Alexandria or Athens, but rather right there in his own home he went to the lost sheep of Israel. That was his call.

And yet when a Canaanite woman approaches him and, by her faith and humility and persistence, moves his heart. He makes a change to his plan, and in doing so he gives us a glimpse into the reason behind everything he does which is the salvation of souls. He came to undo the work of the Devil as it says in the first letter of John in the third chapter. Now Saint Paul puts it in this letter to Timothy, God wants everyone to be saved and to reach a full knowledge of the truth. So, when he speaks to the Canaanite woman and says, “it’s not right to take the food of the children to feed it to the dogs,” she comes back with faith, persistence. She comes back with a mother’s love and says, “even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the master’s table.”

Here, we see a reason for this odd interchange. Saint Paul said, “God delivered all to disobedience.” In other words, he permitted sin and evil to spread throughout the whole entire human family so that God might have mercy on them all. Here he is in the midst of his work, going to the lost sheep of Israel, indicating that we ‘the Church’ would go to everybody else. And so, the words of the Prophet Isaiah would come true – foreigners who joined themselves to the Lord, ministering to them, loving the name of the Lord, becoming his servants, all who keep the Sabbath free from profanation  and hold to my covenant – them, I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.

This is our task. In this year of the Eucharistic Revival, we center on the knowledge of the Eucharist. The love of Jesus in the Eucharist. To know His soul and divinity, His Body and his Blood, and as we receive it, that we receive Christ himself. Food for our journey.

Remember too, that when Jesus spoke these words to us in the Gospel of John, people began to question. And Jesus said again, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

We have a banquet table of heaven we are sharing here on earth. It’s not meant to be for just those who believe now, but for those who may come to believe. And so, in this Year of the Eucharist, in this year of revival, and in this year when our diocese seeks to make our families of faith flourish before the Lord, we need to receive this gift and to share it. And to that end every parish in the nation, every parish in our diocese, every home should hopefully have access to teachings  –  a seven-week course on the Eucharist that you can share with your neighbors and your own home having become disciples of the Eucharist yourself and to follow Him. This way brothers and  sisters, our church growing will be in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, “a house of prayer for all peoples.”