17th Sunday of Mathew - Fast Food Churches
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men. For you neither go in, nor do you allow those entering to go in. (Mat 23:13)
The present American generation can be defined easily by two words: instant gratification. THis two words describe an attitude against life that is the driving force behind everything is happening around us. We want everything and we want it now! Instant messages, email, fax, internet. Instant food, the faster the better. Instant education, job, wealth. Instant medical service, diagnosis, and an instant cure. Instant family. Instant travel. Instant information. Instant banking. Right or wrong, good or bad, we want it now.
In a way we can say this is progress, we want more things better and faster. But aren't we loosing anything in the process of increasing the speed of our lives 10 times every year?
Think about food for example. We leave in the times of Starbucks were a coffee awaits for us at every corner. But can you compare the coffeee they serve with a slow cooked, creamy and full of flavour Greek coffee? I seriously doubt it. But I cannot be objective here. Or can you compare Mc Donald's burgers with any of the great foods your grandma used to cook? Don't ask your kids opinion though on this...
My grandma used to cook a soup in about 3 hours. It tasted heavenly. But her ma was always complaining about the fact that she cooks too fast. My mom she cooked the same soup in an hour and I just buy just chicken base and cook it in 10 minutes. See what I mean?
What's the problem with this? First the quality of the food s damaged. In Italy they have a movement called the Slow Food movement that goes against everything that is Fast Food. They were claiming that dues to this increased speed of living entire dishes were taken auto completely from our menus. Even certain tastes are extinct and gone into oblivion. People settle for lower quality but in huge quantities. And we look around and see were this attitude has lead us, to an population that is more than 50% overweight.
This attitude toward life is not just damaging our bodies but is damaging our souls also. Because we start treating God as an illegal immigrant working in a burger place: hey you, I want my burger and I want it now. I need my daughter to be cured now! I need a bigger car and I want it now, I need a bigger house and I'll get into debt even if Icannot afford it now, you better help me with the mortgage! Or God forbid that a priest denies Communion to someone that is not in good ecclesiastical order and asks the person to wait until the situation resolves. Do you see anything wrong with this picture?
We treat God like a cornucopia from which all the good and really unnecessary things flow out. The moment He denies anything that we ask we get mad at Him. He is not a good God anymore, He doesn't love us, and therefore maybe He even doesn't exist.
But this attitude is not what the Christ is trying to teach us. Take the story of the Canaanite we just heard. There comes this women, out of her pagan boundaries and comes in front of Christ and says Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is grievously vexed with a demon. She is so involved in Her daughter illness that she doesn't even say save my daughter she says save me, have mercy on me. And Christ, surprisingly, unlike in other instances doesn't even respond. Pretty curious for a man that can heal the sick and rise the dead. Even the disciples were surprised and say to Him begged Him, saying, Send her away, for she cries after us.
And again Christ, apparently insensitive to the needs of this pagan woman says I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But what did the woman did. Did she took her daughter and said. Let's get out of here. He doesn't want to help us, let's go to Buddha, maybe He can help. No, she stayed there in front of Him and said Lord, help me! We start realizing now that she is a not just a pretty determined woman, but she is also smart. Spiritually smart, because she figures out, enlightened by the Spirit that the person in front of her is not just another healer, not a magician, not an exorcist but the Lord of all things that can make anything happen, not just cast out a demon.
But He answered and said, It is not good to take the children's bread and to throw it to dogs. This was the attitude of the Israelites against the other people. Only the Israelites were the sons of God, the others were dogs, unworthy to partake in the kingdom of God reserved for them. What a mistake. Christ has already told them "do not think to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. "(Mat 3:9) The fact that someone comes from a noble family does not guarantee virtue. This is what Christ is trying to show here, not to the woman but to His disciples. He wants to show the wickedness of the ways of their people that treat everyone else bad. And think well about themselves, forgetting about everyone else.
And the women now come back to the best answer ever written: True, O Lord; but even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' tables. What an example of humility, of understanding and most of all perseverance. She is not proud to say I'm out of here, obviously He doesn't care, because she had faith, she was in the front of the Lord, She recognized Him, she knew that He can only be good and stayed there, persisting in prayer.
And Jesus finishing now His lesson answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith! So be it to you even as you wish. And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
What a beautiful example of Christian virtues This Canaanite woman has everything a Christian should have: She recognized Christ as her God and Savior, She has tremendous faith in Him, She prays with perseverance and has a humble heart, recognizing her place in the great scheme of things by remembering her sins.
We should all follow this example on our road toward salvation. Leave behind us any thought about instant gratification in the Church. Here we get things not when we want them, not when we think we need them, but when God considers is the right time for us. It is the healthiest attitude. We should taste more from the slow cooked food of unceasing prayer and wait until the Holy Spirit comes down to us and enlighten us. The fact we said a few time the Lord's Prayer does not grant us illumination. We need to wait. There is no fast food for the soul here, only slow food, but it tastes heavenly and lasts forever. Because it is prepared for us in the heavenly Kingdom. Amin