The Canaanite woman – Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
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The Gospel event of the Canaanite woman shows us the immensity of the obedience and its significance for our spiritual healing i.e. spiritual transfiguration and perfection.
As we read the Holy Gospel (Matthew 15: 21–28), we notice that after the woman expressed her supplications to Christ, He did not answer her with a single word, but completely ignored her. In the end, His disciples themselves, being surprised, because they had never seen Him so stern and “merciless,” urged Christ to help her. But the God-Man Christ remains with an unchanged position and behaviour; He does not even look at her: “I am sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
All of this is a great humiliation and pain for the woman. But she approaches Him again with faith and, bowing down, persistently beseeches Him, not paying attention to her “humiliation”, to her mental and physical exhaustion. Then Christ utters His response, for her a very difficult and offensive, phrase that equates woman with irrational animals: “It is not good to take the bread from the children and throw it to the dogs.” In such a case a person often loses hope, respect, and trust in the one who causes him the insult and the emotional pain. All sorts of thoughts and darkening of the mind usually follow, as well as the distancing from the one who causes the hurt.
But not in this case. The woman humbly accepted the word of Christ and, considering herself unworthy of attention, help, and mercy asked to be given only as much as the crumbs that fall from the children’s table while they eat. She equated herself with the irrational animals. And immediately we hear the word of Christ approving and confirming her struggle (endeavour, feat) of faith, humility, and obedience: “O woman, great is your faith; let it be to you as you desire.” In an instant, the one who was in utter “humiliation” was pardoned, heard, and exalted because of her complete obedience and faith in Christ, and because of her newly realised personal relationship with Him in the aforementioned way.
Let us summarise what actually happened to the Canaanite woman during her meeting with Christ.
First, she accepted the behaviour of Christ, i.e. His deed, the act of utterly ignoring and humiliating her. Second, she accepted His word, extremely offensive to her, and thus she accepted His teaching. Third, she accepted His will and providence for her regarding her salvation. And, because she accepted the deed, the word, the providence, and the will of Christ, she inevitably and immediately received the grace of Christ, i.e. it is all one and the same thing, and she realised a personal relationship with Him. Her supplication already had another quality and value before Christ: ” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”
What has all of this to do with our spiritual life?
The attitude of the Canaanite woman towards Christ shows what our attitude towards the spiritual father should be, or to be more precise, what our obedience should be to the one who, in our life, is an icon of Christ, who sits in the place of and is the image of Christ; to whom we freely and lovingly choose and under whose enlightened mind we willingly and voluntarily subdue our pride-scattered and darkened minds – until, by growing in obedience, Christ Himself is manifested and shaped in us; until we reach the level of enlightenment of the mind.
Obedience is not an easy task and is not without temptations (tribulations). Therefore, until we receive the gift of the prayer of the mind in the heart, it is an ascetic endeavour, a struggle whereby we are forcing ourselves. The spiritual father can be changed, but not the endeavour of obedience. Without obedience there is no transition from the unnatural to the natural way of life, from the incoherent intonation of the words of the mind through the mouth to the prayer of the mind in the heart.
Most-Holy Theotokos, save us!
Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
(16.10.2021 15:56)
