“Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end. ”

Perseverance is a great grace. To go on gaining and advancing every day, we must be resolute, and bear and suffer as our blessed forerunners did. Which of them gained heaven without a struggle? - St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Gospel text: (MT 15: 21-28)
At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
“Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But he did not say a word in answer to her.
His disciples came and asked him,
“Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”
He said in reply,
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He said in reply,
“It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters.”
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.”
And her daughter was healed from that hour

The apparently negative manner that Jesus uses towards this woman is a little surprising, but I think that we remain only on the surface if that is all that we see. Jesus seems to challenge or even argue with this woman, but I would say that what Jesus is doing is drawing her out.

Despite being ignored and rebuffed, the Canaanite woman persisted. Please, please, please! Most of us would give up if we were denied and slighted as this woman was. But not her

Remember this, faith is not a privilege of a few, nor is it the property of those who think they are so good or have an ecclesial label. God's action precedes any human action and the Holy Spirit is already acting upon persons we would have never suspected could bring us a message from God.

I end with a question: does it seem like God is ignoring me, refusing me, or maltreating me? Or is he lovingly asking me to deal with what he has put in front of me? Or maybe he is insisting, like a teacher, that I grasp the basics firmly before he can deal with my little resistances?