Isa 56: 1, 6-7; Ps 66(67); Rom 11: 13-15, 29-32; Mt 15:21-28
Third Isaiah was writing after 515 BC, when the Jews had returned from exile in Babylon and had rebuilt the Temple. But there is idolatry and injustice. Isaiah looks forward to a time when all peoples will be able to worship in the Temple, both foreigners and individuals with imperfect bodies. All that matters is justice and keeping the covenant.
Paul kept hoping his people would accept Jesus as the Christ. In his letter to the Jewish Christians in Rome he insists that God has not rejected his people: the Gentiles are a branch grafted onto the tree of Israel. In today’s reading he sees the Gentile mission as trying to make Jews envious and so also come to accept God’s mercy, as he has. But the Gentile branch can be broken off if they lose their faith.
In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus has criticised the Jewish leaders for insisting on external purity while disobeying God’s commandments. Nothing entering one’s mouth defiles, only what comes out. In Phoenicia, the only scene outside Israel in this gospel, Jesus heals the Canaanite child. But first he utters the memorable insult that “it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs”.
Psalm Response: Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
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