When God Plays Hard to Get (20th Sunday Ordinary A)

One hot summer afternoon, I was amazed to see a bromeliad on a pot blooming with beautiful flower when everything around it was dry and parched. It had not rained for days. I called the attention of one of the priests in the house.  His background in agriculture came in handy for the explanation I was asking. He told me that bromeliads need “stress” in order to bloom.  When they get plenty of water and fertilizer, they develop into much bigger plants, even double their original size, with pupping increased but flowering is put off for another year at least. To bloom with flowers, they have to be subjected to stress by suppressing water and fertilizer.  

When everything in its surrounding was parched, that bromeliad bloomed because it had been under stress.  It’s cool, don’t you think so? I see the growth of our faith quite the same way.  Some sort of stress is needed for our faith to bloom.  Today’s gospel (Mt. 15: 21-28), for instance, illustrates how Jesus put under stress the initial faith of the Canaanite woman in order for it to bloom and merit Jesus’ exclamation, “O woman, great is your faith!”

The first stress is God’s silence. The woman calling out on Jesus is given the cold shoulder at first.  Jesus does not say anything.  Silence as a response to a desperate prayer can be unnerving.  When God is silent in the face of our suffering, our faith is shaken.  Sometimes our faith needs to be shaken to rouse it from the slumber of mediocrity.

Next is the stress of exclusion.  The Canaanite woman is made to understand that she does not belong to those whom Jesus is sent.  The disciples of Jesus wants her dismissed and Jesus adds insult to injury by implying that she is, indeed, not part of his mission. His mission is only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  The woman, a Canaanite, is not a member of the house of Israel.  To be excluded from a family is alienating.  It brings insecurity.  To be made aware of the fact that one does not belong to the family of God is perhaps the ultimate experience of alienation and insecurity.

The ultimate stress is that of humiliation. The woman, not giving up, faces the ultimate test of faith—being called a dog! This humiliation strips off her dignity. She is reduced to nothing! She is made to feel her complete unworthiness! But still, acceding to her utter worthlessness, she believes that God’s grace has something in store even for the unworthy. “Even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters” (v. 27).

Such is the greatness of the Canaanite woman’s faith.  When everything is lost, even her dignity, she humbly clings to only one thing:  THE UNDESERVED GRACE OF GOD.  And she gets it flooding on her way as she hears Jesus exclaimed, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” (v. 28).

Today’s gospel then instructs us that when God plays hard to get, it is not because God does not care; it is because God wants to see our faith bloom.  God wants not a mediocre faith or an average faith. God wants a GREAT faith! And God knows that each of us can have such a faith if we allow him to help us.

An average faith worships and praises God because “God is good...  all the time.”  The experience of God’s abundant grace in our life makes us grateful to God. Hence, our praises to his mighty name.  But such faith has to grow.  Abundance can spoil our faith.  It can create in us a sense of entitlement.
What if God suddenly becomes silent and distant? What if, in the words of Fr. Thomas Green, the well runs dry?  What if we experience the “dark night of the soul” described by St. John of the Cross?  Will we remain steadfast?  

An insight from today’s gospel therefore is this:  Growth towards greatness of faith is a process of stripping off even the last shred of our sense of entitlement to God’s grace.  Great faith emerges from the humble position of sheer unworthiness on our part but with a certain conviction that God cares nevertheless.

When God plays hard to get with us, it’s good to remember the bromeliads.  It is only when they are put under stress that they bloom with precious and beautiful flowers.  God plays hard to get because he wants our faith to grow to its fullness.  God wants us to have what the Canaanite woman in today’s gospel eventually possessed—GREAT FAITH—nothing less.