Pseudo-Homilies 27 – Jesus, a backward xenophobe?

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Oh, this reading was meant to spark controversy! Jesus is in pagan land, in the region of Tire and Sidon. A local woman (Canaanite) asks him to save her sick daughter (she was said to have “a demon”, but that’s not necessarily meant as a demonic possession in the proper sense). Jesus, at least at first, appears unfriendly, contemptuous. He states that he’s been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel! Only after doubling down, comparing pagans like her to house pets, It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs…

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Pseudo-Homilies From a Layman -1- The Blind Born Man

Introduction I came up with this reckless idea: introducing my take on the readings for the Sunday masses, a quasi-homily if you will. Particularly questionable because I’m verbose, while the goal of homilies should be clarity and conciseness. Furthermore I don’t have much time and I’m a procrastinator. We’ll see. Why the Pseudo-Homilies From a Layman? While I am strongly against allowing lay people to preach during Mass, I do hope I have something meaningful to say in these pages, which represent an entirely different context. At any rate, this will be an interesting personal journey. It’s hard to do worse than those priests who regularly inflict some 20-minute tirades…

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