GOSPEL MESSAGE & RECORDING
This Gospel account is a prime example of our own prayer life; this is how we should pray. This Canaanite woman exemplifies our struggles in prayer, but more to the point, she shows us how we are to pray. Prayer, and I mean True Prayer, is something that we must struggle with. Very often in our spiritual life, specifically in the context of being in need and praying to God for help, we often feel despondent or disheartened when our prayers are not answered. God does not answer every prayer that we pray to Him in the manner in which we intend. When we pray in our times of need, we do so while looking for a specific solution or a response within a timeframe. It is always hard to accept God’s answer or His response time.
Again, this Canaanite woman epitomizes the work that is required in prayer. For she begins with Faith and continues in perseverance without ever losing Faith. She accepts true humility in her prayer, and she allows God to work according to His Will. At any moment, she could have been disheartened by either what the disciples said or by Christ calling her a dog. Yet, she stayed strong and focused in her prayer and received that which she asked for.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our prayer life require such virtues to be fruitful. When we pray, we require Faith, perseverance, and humility to have a true and genuine prayer as this Canaanite woman. Faith because only God can answer our prayers. He is the One and True God, and He is the One Who will seek out the best for us when we seek after Him. We must have perseverance, especially in our times of need, because in our prayer, we learn to grow closer to God. It seems as though everyone becomes likened to a Saint, in terms of prayer, when we are in need; yet the moment our prayer is answered, we immediately stop praying, or at the very least stop praying with such fervency. Also, outside of our times of need, whenever we pray, we are so easily distracted by either event in our lives or by particular passions which pull our mind and our hearts away from God. And finally, we must have humility because we won’t always get what we desire from our prayer. No parent gives a child everything that the child asks for because they do not know what they need. If it were up to the child, they would eat sweets 24/7, play games, and focus on having fun. But as a good parent, you know that the child would not be able to live if he or she continues to live such a lifestyle. This is why it is said that God answers everyone’s prayer, but not always according to the formal request of the supplicant, but rather He always answers the prayer according to His Good Will as our Father.
In the same way, in which Christ would not have allowed anyone to get in between Him and this Canaanite woman, He does not allow anything to get in the way between Him and us when we pray. The issue is that we allow other things to get between us; we focus on a number of different things during our prayer and lose focus on God. Therefore, as children of God, let us seek after that intimate connection with God through our life of prayer. Let us seek after Him without any distractions and allow Him to work in our lives rather than trying to tell Him what to do. Because, my dear brothers and sisters, God is our Good Father in Heaven, and He wishes for all people to draw closer to Him. The only thing that gets in our way is the obstacles we either set up ourselves or others have placed before us. Our job is to tear down these obstacles through constant fasting and prayer and through the guidance of a Spiritual Father who has learned this struggle. In this Great Fast, seek after the virtues of Faith, perseverance, and humility and, through the guidance of a Spiritual Father, draw nearer to God as is His Good Will.