20th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

• Lectionary Readings from the USCCB

This Sunday we are presented with a very peculiar gospel reading as we begin a new semester at WCU. A woman comes to Jesus asking for help for her daughter. Our Lord responds by calling her a dog. What’s going on here? That’s not the response we would expect from Jesus!

Our Lord does go on to then praise her great faith and heal her daughter. But why does he insult her first? Our gospel and the other readings from this Sunday are telling us something about the universal and particular nature of the Catholic faith. The word “catholic” means universal, but each of us must appropriate the faith in order to make it particular to our own lives. That’s what I discuss in this week’s video reflection, as I encourage all students to utilize this special time on campus to seek out Jesus, as this Canaanite woman did, and make the universal faith your own.