2026年8月16日・年間第20主日 (A)

Isaiah 56.1,6-7・Psalm 67. 2+3, 4;5, 7+8・Romans 11.13-15, 29-32;・Matthew 15.21-28

                         　　　  JESUS CARES FOR ALL

…no signs of abandonment

In today's readings, we are called to strengthen our trust and confidence in God's love, mercy, guidance, and providence, even when some things in our daily lives seem to contradict what we believe about a caring God.

The reality of the world, together with our own personal experiences, can sometimes make us feel abandoned. Serious illnesses, accidents caused by human error, natural calamities, and the suffering of innocent people often lead us to ask:

Why does God allow these things to happen?

Why does He allow so many people to suffer?

These questions may remain difficult, and sometimes we may not find complete answers. But as people of faith, we are called to persevere—not only in asking God for what we want, but also in opening our hearts honestly before Him and asking for the grace to understand what He wants for us.

True perseverance in prayer is not simply insisting that God give us exactly what we ask for. It is also the willingness to remain with God until our hearts become more peaceful and more aligned with His will. Our hope is not merely to receive everything we desire. Our deeper hope is to discover what is truly good for us and to remain in harmony with God's will.

The Gospel today presents us with the encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman.

At first, the Gospel seems difficult. Jesus says that He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The disciples also seem to want the woman to go away.

But the Canaanite woman does not give up. She continues to trust Jesus. She continues to ask. She continues to believe that Jesus can help her daughter. Her perseverance reveals something important: she already recognizes something about Jesus that others have not yet fully understood. She believes that the mercy of Jesus is greater than the boundaries people have placed around God's love.

And Jesus praises her faith. This is one of the important messages of today's Gospel: Jesus cares for all. God's love is not limited to a particular race, nation, group, or community. The first reading from Isaiah already points toward this wider vision. God's house is meant to be a house of prayer for all peoples. The Canaanite woman becomes a sign of this truth. But there is another important dimension to the Gospel. The disciples also needed to learn. They had their own ideas about who belonged and who did not belong. They had their own understanding of the mission of Jesus. But through this encounter, they were being prepared for a mission that would eventually go far beyond what they could imagine. The woman standing before them was not simply a person asking for a miracle. She was also a sign of the people whom the disciples would one day be called to serve.

The disciples would eventually be sent to proclaim the Gospel, to bring forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation—not only to people who were familiar to them, but also to people whom they might never have imagined serving. The encounter with the Canaanite woman therefore challenges the disciples to widen their understanding of God's mission.

And it also challenges us.

We, too, can sometimes create boundaries around God's love. We may think that some people are more deserving than others. We may find it difficult to forgive certain people. We may unconsciously believe that God's mercy is meant more for people like us than for others.

But the Gospel invites us to listen more deeply to the Heart of Jesus—a Heart that includes everyone. The Canaanite woman also teaches us something about prayer. She did not give up. Her perseverance was not a demand based on entitlement. It was a humble and trusting confidence in Jesus. This is the kind of perseverance we are called to have.

When we pray, we may not always understand what God is doing. We may not immediately receive the answer we expect. We may even experience moments when God seems silent. But silence is not necessarily abandonment. Delay is not necessarily rejection. And suffering does not mean that God has stopped caring. The Gospel invites us to remain with Jesus and to continue listening. Let us listen more carefully to what Jesus is telling us about the reality of our world. Let us listen until we hear Him saying:

God has not abandoned you.

God cares for you.

God's love is wider than the boundaries we create.

And when we truly begin to understand this, we will have greater courage to go where we are called to go and to do what we are called to do. Because Jesus cares for all. And if Jesus cares for all, then we, His disciples, are also called to care for all. There are no signs of abandonment in the Heart of Jesus. There is only a love that continues to seek, to heal, to forgive, and to include. Amen.