Humility Attracts Grace - Fr. Micah - February 14, 2021

Today on the Sunday of the Canaanite the Gospel lesson comes to us from Matthew 15:21-28. In this pericope we hear about a woman, embolden with humility and faith, who persistently approaches Christ imploring Him for mercy seeking her daughters healing. The woman, a Canaanite, is from a pagan land that was the historic enemy of the people of Israel. Nevertheless, she cries out to our Lord for mercy because her daughter is severely demon possessed only to be ignored and called a dog by Christ. In her humility she shows a confidence and boldness to kneel before Jesus, who in response, is amazed by her faith and humility and heals her daughter. Father Micah shares with us several positive parallels from Scripture where Jesus was amazed by a person’s faith including the Centurion and Saint Paul who took the Gospel to the Gentiles. In our own prayer lives, as Orthodox Christians, if we are met with silence from our Lord, we should be inspired by this Canaanite woman’s faith, persistence, humility leading to boldness and accept any crumb of Grace we receive, because it is worth more than the whole world.