No leftovers!

Salvation history is "the greatest story ever told", as the title of a book by Bishop Fulton Sheen reads. The infinite God goes on creating human beings, His children, and He wishes to have them all again with Him in heaven. For this He has sent His own Son made man to convey to us such an exciting message.

There were theologians in the past, and you still meet some today, who held that at the end of the world there will be "a general restoration" and all human beings without exception will be with God in heaven.

The official doctrine of the Church, however, tells us that, while God is infinitely merciful, He nonetheless respects the choice of those who, by word or by deed, have freely excluded Him altogether from their lives. As St Augustine has said: "He who has created you without you, will not save you without you".

Today's Gospel message suggests that indeed, no one is excluded from God's plan of salvation, unless, of course, one knowingly and freely excludes oneself from it.

We read today about a non-Jewish woman, a Canaanite belonging to Israel's ancient enemies. She rushes one day to Jesus who happened to be passing through her area and cried: "Have pity on me, for my daughter is troubled by an evil spirit!"

Our Lord's first reaction to such a sorrowful request was that she did not yet qualify for inclusion in his plan, which at that stage was directed only to his own people. "My mission here is reserved to the lost sheep that are of the house of Israel," he answered. But that response did not quite work. The woman's faith in Jesus was so strong that she would not take 'no' for an answer. So she insisted until Jesus finally gave in and, at a distance, healed her daughter.

So the pagan woman, or rather her amazing faith, did, in a way, make Jesus modify his plans, notwithstanding the fact that his time was now running short in view of its imminent conclusion with his own death and resurrection.

The story of this courageous Canaanite woman tells us much about God's plan of salvation. This plan is universal. It allows for no 'leftovers'. All human beings are children of God, and God is their Father who, like every other father, truly loves all his children, including the disobedient ones, and sincerely wishes to have them all eventually with him to share his eternal glory.

Today's Gospel narrative should drive us willy-nilly to set a pointed question to ourselves: "How is my faith? Do I truly believe in God as my Father, always, and no matter how things may evolve in my regard?"

True, it hardly ever occurs to me to set such a question to myself. I always seem to take it for granted that nothing is wrong with my faith in God. I have never denied Him, and whenever I sinned I sorrowfully sought and obtained His pardon. But where is my faith when something goes wrong in my life, when I feel betrayed or facing failure, when I feel like a 'leftover' even among those around me?

St Augustine, the great Doctor of the Church, has written much about faith, but this statement seems to summarise it all: "Faith is to believe what we do not see, and its reward is to see what we believe!"

Supernatural faith, which is one of the three theological virtues, is indeed 'seeing': not with the eyes of the body, but with those of the soul. When our spiritual vision begins to blur, for lack of hope or charity, then it is time for us to pray more.