This Sunday’s liturgy highlights the universal salvific purpose of God. The Lord has not predestined anyone to damnation; God does not offer man two alternatives: salvation and damnation, but only one: salvation. On the other hand, the fact that God chose Israel as the people of the promises does not mean any exclusive purpose. He has not denied anyone the necessary means to come to the knowledge of what is strictly necessary to achieve salvation. Indeed, as the apostle Paul says: “God wants everyone to be saved and come to a full knowledge of the truth” (1Tim 2, 4). It is the so-called “principle of universal salvation.” Salvation, obviously, is not given to us by the mere fact of belonging to a ‘chosen people’ to a ‘true religion’, salvation is given to us as a gift from the Lord, by the merits of Christ, not by our good works; no one is saved without Christ, whether they know it or not; But, on the other hand, salvation is not imposed against our will, it requires a response from man moved by grace.

The Lord does not deny anyone his gifts; and, as the apostle Peter says “God is no respecter of persons, but in any nation, he who fears him and practices justice is pleasing to him” (Acts 10, 34…), it does not matter from which people he comes or, finally, from what ‘religion’ it is; This, however, does not imply the relativization of the Christian faith for the sake of a supposed ‘ecumenism’. It does not mean that it is the same whether you are a Christian or not. Ecumenism cannot imply the renunciation of the truth; what stands out here is the orthopraxis over a supposed ‘orthodoxy’, that is, faith is not a theoretical question, it is a life experience.

The first reading (Cf., Is 56, 1.6-7) already expresses an attitude of openness to ‘foreigners’, which, at that time, meant a truly provocative proposal for the so-called fundamentalists of the faith, those who defended the ‘purity’ of their traditions. God asks much more than that. He wants, more than burnt offerings or sacrifices, that law and justice be practiced; not to ignore the poor, the orphan, and the widow (prototypes of the most defenseless and vulnerable in the society of those times).

In the second reading (cf., Rom 11, 13-15.29-32) Paul, the so-called ‘Apostle of the Gentiles’, tries to provoke ‘jealousy’ in those who received the first call from God, the people of the old covenant, noting the generous acceptance of the faith on the part of the Gentiles or ‘pagans’; but, it also recognizes that God’s call is irrevocable, God does not intend to put aside the first calls. He wants, finally, all men to be saved. The conversion of the ‘pagans’ should arouse healthy ‘envy’ among those who felt they were the only possessors of the faith. Something similar should happen today: the faith of the “developing” peoples should arouse the jealousy of the Christians of the old continent. Europe, traditionally Catholic, needs to be re-evangelized, infected with the vitality of the faith of those who were once considered pagan peoples and who today constitute the hope of the Church.

In the Gospel (Cf., Mt 15, 21-28), Jesus praises the faith, not precisely of the scribes and Pharisees of his time but of some pagans, as is the case of that Canaanite woman. The examples of faith and good practices, which Jesus often uses, are truly provocative and must have caused scandal among those who considered themselves the “custodians” of the true faith and traditions. The case of the Canaanite woman is not the only example, let us also remember the case of the Roman centurion of whom Jesus said: “I assure you that in all Israel I have not found such great faith in anyone” (Mt 8, 10), the case of the Samaritan (cf., Lk 10, 29ff), considered as a ‘foreigner’ and almost as a ‘pagan’, who is put as an example of love of neighbor.

In this Sunday’s Gospel we are told that dialogue between Jesus and the Canaanite woman, in which Jesus seems to address that woman with harsh words: “It is not good to throw the children’s bread to the dogs” (Mt 15:26 ), as if implying that the privileged of God’s gifts are the Jews, words that apparently have a discriminatory tone; likewise, the expression “they have only sent me to the lost sheep of Israel” (Mt 15:24) would seem to contradict the fact that Jesus has come to save all men. In reality, those words put on the lips of Jesus express the prevailing Jewish mentality. Jesus, despite being a Jew, overcomes the socio-cultural conditioning of his time. His actions against ‘foreigners’ or ‘pagans’ demonstrate in practice that “God is no respecter of persons”, because of his people, race or ‘religion’. What’s more, some so-called pagans turn out to have greater faith than so-called ‘believers’, as in the examples mentioned above. Jesus, finally, praised the faith of that ‘pagan’ woman: “Woman, how great is your faith; May what you desire come true” (Mt 15:28).

The missionary action of the Church, without renouncing the announcement of the saving message and the custody of the ‘deposit of faith’, must be open to the world, without imposing cultural codes or ways of thinking and acting that are not demands of faith. The missionary not only carries the faith but also finds it; the evangelizer is evangelized, because the spirit blows where it wants. It is not just about going beyond our territorial borders to bring the Good News, we must overcome our ‘mental borders’, our prejudices, and superiority complexes, to discover not only the seeds of faith ‘among the’ pagans ‘but true faith like that of the Canaanite woman. Many times, those of us who have some evangelizing experience, have come across people whom we supposedly tried to encourage in their faith, being encouraged by them, and discovering that they actually had a faith greater than ours. On the other hand, we must not forget that a more enlightened faith (with solid knowledge of the Bible and theology) is not necessarily a greater faith. Evangelizers must always have the humility to be surprised by the faith of the simple.