Why is the Lord silent?
The summer of our Lord's second year of public life draws near. The latest miracles at the lakeside, the spectacular multiplication of the loaves and fishes, the great promise of the Eucharist, have all failed to move the hard hearts of the Jewish leaders. And Jesus, exhausted, goes off with the Apostles to Gentile territory to find a quiet place to rest.
The inhabitants of that quiet countryside overlooking the sea regard our Lord as just another stranger. Nevertheless, some have heard stories about the great prophet from Galilee traveling all over Palestine, curing many diseases and afflictions. The word spreads from house to house and along the shore. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon."
The action of the Canaanite woman is a wonderful lesson in daring petition. Spurred on by her daughter's pitiful plight, she leaves no stone unturned: she runs, she seeks, she enquires, until eventually she finds the Master and tells him the reason for her anguish. It is her love that causes her to cry out as she does.
There is an air of expectation among Christ's followers. Jesus is the only hope the woman has of seeing her daughter cured, and the anguish in her voice reveals the pain in her soul. But he did not answer her a word.
Christ is silent. It is not hardness of heart. Our Lord often tests our faith like this, because he wishes to strengthen us in the conviction that without Him, we can do nothing. Christ's lack of responsiveness here reveals his infinite love, which seeks to make the motive of our perseverance more supernatural. At times, Jesus keeps silent; he allows us to feel like strangers and exiles. “We may even imagine that our Lord does not hear us; that we are being deluded, that all we hear is the monologue of our own voice. We find ourselves, as it were, without support on earth and abandoned by heaven." It may seem to us that the Gospel scene is being repeated in our lives.
The Canaanite woman doesn't get discouraged. She begs him again and again. At times, when we want something really important, our Lord wants us to pray for it for many years: a prayer composed of supplication and work, of striving to fulfill his commandments and abandonment to his merciful designs; a prayer of our entire existence, which makes us more humble and draws us closer to Christ, because we discover that he is our only recourse.
Even so, we must pray even though it may seem that God is not listening to our plea.
“Everything has its time. Our Lord knows perfectly well what our needs are, yet he wants us to ask with the same persistence as the people in the Gospel."
“Ask the same way they did: they asked him for everything.”