The Universal Call to love

Not long ago we read in the gospel the words of Jesus telling us: Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me for I am humble and gentle in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. So here in a strange encounter with a non-Jew the initial response of Jesus seems harsh and uncompassionate. Can it really be so?

I wonder if reading this story, we hear echoes of that other story from the gospel of John, of the meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Although superficially they are different, I think that both have at their heart the act bringing a gentile to faith, someone who at the outset was perhaps ambivalent and undecided about who Jesus is, but who in the end, through a journey of encounter are brought to true knowledge and belief in him. This is after all, how Jesus responds to us when we approach him. He recognises the unique circumstances of each one of us and he deals with them according to their needs.

In their encounter with Jesus both women address him as “sir”. There is no inkling of anything other than here is a person who can help me. The Canaanite woman wants relief from the trials she is enduring because of the sickness of her daughter, and the Samaritan wants relief from the daily trudge back and forth to the well to collect water. The disciples in both encounters become agitated and impatient with Jesus and try and get him to move along but he knows what he is doing, and he brings the women to understanding and faith, through a series of back-and-forth conversations which result in each of them ultimately professing him as “Lord” and “Messiah”. He brings out of them both, a profession of faith that is profound and life enhancing. So rather than seeing Jesus’ initial response to the Canaanite woman as being harsh and cold, by first ignoring her request and then by saying what he does, he generates from her a response which opens in her a living faith. Similarly with the Samaritan woman, Jesus, intuitively aware of her past, helps her to deal with her circumstances, enabling her to profess him as Christ.

So those words of Jesus at the beginning of this piece are not negated but totally endorsed by what happens to both women. They have come to him and have not been turned away. Rather they have come to him seeking a solution for a very human problem and have through his universal love truly found his divine rest for their souls.