Leftovers

"It's not right to throw the children's bread to dogs," Matthew 15:26.

Finally, somebody calls them for what they are: dogs! They aren't real people, not with all rights and privileges thereunto appertaining. That loud-mouthed foreign woman at last in her place! We tried to be civil by ignoring her. But she kept on with her incessant demands. So we had Jesus tell her to get lost. Well, he told her. He's only for us, our kind. (Not for hers.) But she wouldn't stop - on her knees now, just kept on. (No dignity with her!) And then he said it. He called her and her kind dogs. But then she said, she said, Even dogs eat the kids' leftovers. And then, and then, he said, Woman, your mega faith! Your wish? Done!

Jesus exposes the rot of our thinking, the shame of our words. He then raises us, repentant, to God-imputed dignity, to fully human being. Humbled, loved so, we give thanks. Feast with a brother or sister today on the Bread of life.