Monthly Archives: August 2026

Reflecting on  Matthew 15: 21-28

I don’t think I’d have had the humility to do what that heroic Canaanite woman did. She was finally in the presence of the great Rabbi, the Jesus the provinces were so excited about. “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!” she cried out. Right away we see her great humility, in addressing Jesus by his Jewish title. She was a Canaanite and knew nothing of David or Moses. But she’d done her homework, and knew that this Jew, this Jesus, was often called the Son of David.

She approached him and begged him to heal her dear daughter, who was in the clutches of a demon. The disciples with Jesus did what they so often did. They tried to shush her and get her to move on. What would the Master want with a miserable Canaanite woman?

It’s so disheartening to see the people closest to Jesus, who had traveled hundreds of miles with him, so often miss the mark when it came to compassion for non-Jews.

But this time, Jesus misses the mark too, and tells her he has only come for the Jews. Our hearts break a little every three years when this reading comes up in the lectionary, when we hear Jesus say this to her. But wait! She’s “doing theology,” that is, talking about God, with him! And he is overjoyed that this Canaanite woman, who never had the great privilege of hearing the Word of God, has more faith than most of the Jews he’d come to save.

He cures her daughter, of course. I like to imagine Jesus and this faith-filled woman exchanging a great laugh and a long, grateful hug.

When has humility brought you closer to someone than pride?

Kathy McGovern ©2026

Reflecting on I Kings 19:9a-13a

We don’t live in the time of the ancient Jews, living in a Canaanite society, who would have heard that reading about Elijah in the cave (1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a). But if we did, we might find ourselves snickering, poking, and laughing out loud as we heard all the places Elijah sought to hear God’s voice. Here’s why.

First, this happens on the mountain of Horeb (Sinai), the very place where Moses received the Ten Commandments twenty generations before. So, as Elijah takes shelter from the Canaanites who are searching to kill him, the Lord tells Elijah to leave his place of safety and to go out in plain sight to wait, for “the Lord will be passing by.”

That’s the first AHA moment for our Jewish audience, because they remember that when Moses himself stood on that very mountain (Exodus 33 and 34), the Lord passed by and revealed to him that God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and full of great love and forgiveness.

God shows love to thousands of generations, but…ahem… also does not let the guilty go unpunished. Our Jewish audience roars, because they know that terrible things happened to the Canaanite prophets who confronted Elijah. Yes! The guilty were punished, but Elijah was cared for! What a comfort to a Hebrew community who were oppressed by the Canaanites at every turn.

But here’s the funny part that the writer surely put in the story to give the Jews strength. God can’t be found in the heavy and strong wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire. Why? Because wind, earthquake and fire are all Canaanite gods! And you’ll never find the true God there.

What places do we look for God today that can never satisfy?

Kathy McGovern ©2026 

Reflecting on Matthew 14: 13-21        

What a moment that must have been. Imagine turning over to Jesus everything you had left to eat while traveling with him to that “deserted place.” Between them they only had five loaves and two fish. I suspect they had already portioned that out in their minds as they looked forward to dinner. And now he’s asking them to turn that over!

Imagine watching him take, bless, break and share that humble offering, and then passing it out to the enormous crowd who had followed him out to that place, begging him to cure their sick.

But wait. What is happening? The crowd is eating contentedly. From whence has come all this food?

Matthew’s gospel is filled with Jewish allusions, because his audience is Jewish and he shapes his memories so that they will resonate with the stories. Hence, he is careful to note that everyone is spread out on the grass, evoking Psalm 23:2, “in green pastures he gives me repose.” Somehow there is plenty to eat, and look, there are TWELVE (evoking the twelve tribes of Israel) wicker baskets of food left over.

In contrast, when St. Luke recounts this famous moment to his Gentile audience (9:10-17) he leaves off these evocative Jewish phrases.
There is a famous and touching mosaic found on the floor of a fourth-century church on the northwestern shore of Lake Galilee, the site where Jesus is thought to have performed this miracle. The two fish and the plate holding the loaves are clearly visible. But here’s the real miracle: there are only four loaves on the plate.

That fifth loaf? That’s you and me, and the whole Church, whose mission is to be leaven for the world.                           

How are you participating in this Eucharistic miracle?

Kathy McGovern ©2026