came down from heaven) would (as the Son of Man, and therefore with His human nature) return to where He was before His Incarnation.
Application. These words of our Blessed Lord ought to move all of you who are going to make your First Communion, to prepare yourselves with the utmost care for receiving this Divine Food.
Each time you enter a church where the Blessed Sacrament is preserved, excite in your hearts an act of firm and lively faith in the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter XXXV.
THE CURE OF THE DAUGHTER OF THE WOMAN OF CHANAAN AND OF THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN.
[Mat. 15, 21—31. Mark 7, 24— 17.]
ON the next Feast of the Passover, Jesus did not go up to Jerusalem because of the snares laid for Him by the Jews, but retired into Galilee. Immediately He was followed by a great crowd of people bringing the sick, the blind, the lame, the deaf, the dumb, whom they laid at His feet, and He cured them all.
Passing one day from Galilee to the confines of Tyre and Sidon, a woman of Chanaan [1] ran after Him, crying out: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David! my daughter is grievously troubled by a devil." Jesus made no answer[2]. But she continued to beseech Him that he would have mercy on her daughter.
Then the apostles, pitying the woman, and anxious to be rid of her importunity, besought their Divine Master to grant her petition. Jesus replied that He was sent only[3] to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Hearing this, the woman renewed still more earnestly her supplications, falling at the Saviour’s feet, and exclaiming: “Lord, help me."
- ↑ A woman of Chanaan. i. e. a descendant of the old idolatrous inhabitants of the land of Chanaan, and evidently a Gentile, though acquainted with the Jewish beliefs, as she calls Jesus Son of David.
- ↑ No answer. In order to try her faith.
- ↑ Sent only. My personal work is due only to the people of Israel. It was after Israel and through Israel (all the apostles being Israelites) that the Gentiles received the grace of salvation.
