A Letter from Fr. Paul - Sunday, August 20th

One day a teacher held up a jar of mayonnaise and asked the students what was in it. “Mayonnaise,” they said.  The teacher then taped a label on it and held it up again.  “Mayonnaise,” the students said.  “But the label says mustard,” the teacher complained.  “It is still mayonnaise,” the students answered.
 
My friends, one of our human foibles is to be putting labels on people all the time.  Race, income, ethnicity, religion, culture, lazy, good looking, sleezy, and so on. And then we relate to them in light of the label we have placed.  But often the real person below the labels is much different than the meaning we attach to the labels.
 
As a human being, Jesus also put labels on people.  In our Gospel, a Canaanite woman, a pagan, approaches Jesus, asking for a cure for her daughter.  In his mind, Jesus had her labeled and in a box: pagan, unclean, not worth bothering about.  But she surprised him with her strong faith and his mind was opened: his mission was to more than the lost sheep of Israel.
 
There is a strong message for us in this story.  We all have cultural viewpoints and biases.  It is part of being human.  But Jesus was open to having his mind and opinions changed. Because of that, he was able to grow into a better understanding of his mission.  We need to be open minded, also, realizing that we carry the biases of our past, but they are not always the full answer.  We need to be able to grow.
 
I invite us today to reflect on the interaction between Jesus and the Canaanite woman.  Am I open to hearing the other person and letting go of my biases?  Am I growing, as Jesus did?  Can I see that it is mayonnaise and not mustard, as the label claims?
 
Church sign of the week: Everyone smiles in the same language.