The Faith of the Canaanite Woman

A Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Now there was read, my brothers, from the Gospel according to Matthew the account of the unceasing petition made to Jesus Christ by the Canaanite woman on behalf of her daughter who was possessed by a demon.[1]

Teaching for us, brothers and sisters, is this Canaanite woman—a mother! Her love for her daughter, who was cruelly suffering under the tormenting power of the devil, moved her to seek deliverance for the unhappy girl from the divine, almighty Wonderworker; and she did not give up importuning the Benefactor and Savior until she received what she asked for, even though her faith and boldness were put to no light test! She was, it seemed, refused once, and twice, and three times, but she was not troubled; she did not despair, she did not say: no, I will not ask and trouble Him any more, evidently I am unworthy; rather she kept nourishing a firm hope in the Wonderworker. At first the Knower of Hearts gave her no answer at all to her petition—in order to stir up in her a stronger faith and hope and a still more ardent prayer; for through obstacles faith and hope, together with prayer, gain ever more strength and firmness in some souls, and blaze up ever more brightly, while in those of little faith and faint of heart they weaken, or even go out altogether. And indeed, the Canaanite woman did not weaken in faith, hope, and prayer, but began to ask and cry out all the more, following after the Lord and His disciples, so much so that they began to intercede for her, that He might let her go. The Lord, as though unwilling to listen either to her or to the disciples, says that He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel—that is, to the Jews, to whom were given the promises, the revelations, the prophecies of His coming into the world and of the salvation of men through Him. Despite this second refusal, she comes up to the Lord Himself, bows down before Him, and says: Lord, help me. Mark how great her faith, her hope, her boldness! Being a pagan, she confesses Him to be the Lord, the Son of David, the almighty King of the spirits; she trusts in His boundless goodness, which embraces not only the Jews but the pagans as well; and like a servant before the Lord—or rather, like a daughter before her Father—she boldly says: Lord, help me.

And when the Lord said: It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs, meaning the heathen, who did not know the true God, among whom this woman also belonged – she was not at all offended by such a designation, being conscious that she was worthy of so shameful a name, and she said: That is so, Lord! But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. Such faith, such hope, humility, and patience were pleasing to the Savior; He praised her for her great faith, saying: O woman! Great is your faith; let it be done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Yes, for such a mother we should applaud!

The Lord found the same faith in a certain Roman centurion, also a former idol worshiper, whose beloved servant was lying at the point of death and was healed by the Lord at the centurion’s request and through his great faith—and in his praise the Lord said: I have not found such faith even in Israel[2]. After this I say to all of you, brothers and sisters: learn to believe in this way, to hope in this way, and to ask the Lord or the Mother of God in this way, with such boldness and persistence as the Canaanite woman asked for her daughter, as the centurion for his servant—and you will receive according to your desire, if it is pleasing to God and of benefit to you. Ask, the Lord says, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened for you[3]. The Canaanite woman depicts our soul; her demon-possessed daughter depicts our flesh, full of many passions, which rages every day with different passions. In whatever plight the Canaanite woman and her daughter were, in that same plight we find ourselves, you and I. From my youth many passions have fought against me, but do You Yourself deliver me and save me, my Savior![4] Why is it that the passions—these demons at work in hearts—so insolently dominate people, as they so often do, tormenting, lacerating, and disgracing those possessed by them? It is because these people lack firm faith, do not pray fervently and persistently, and have no firm desire to be freed from them. Oh, if only someone would send us a mother such as the Canaanite woman, one who would pray to the Lord for us with the same faith, hope, and love as she prayed for her own daughter, so that for the sake of her prayer the Lord would have mercy on us and drive our passions out of us, healing us of our frenzies! For our flesh rages wickedly. But, brothers, we have an Intercessor and Advocate more than a match for the Canaanite woman, one who never puts to shame and is all-merciful: the all-good and all-pure Mother of our God herself, always ready to intercede before her Son and God for our deliverance from the frenzy and fury of the passions, if only we would always run to her with faith and hope, in repentance, from a sincere heart, with a prayer for help. Her intercession is all-powerful, sure, and full of good hope, for she is the Mother of the Lord Himself, the Creator of all creation; and her Son and God, as a debtor to His Mother, will fulfill every petition of hers for us. To her, to her sovereign protection, let us always have recourse. But let us also sharpen and multiply our own faith in the Lord, our hope, and our love for God and neighbor, and unceasingly have recourse in repentance to the Lord Himself, like that Canaanite woman; for the Lord has given all of us the right to turn boldly to Him Himself as well: ask, and it will be given you; and again: everything you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive[5].

So, brothers and sisters, great is the power of faith! The stronger our faith, the greater the saving power of God it draws down upon a person, and there is no sin, no sorrow or calamity so great, that faith could not save us from. It cleanses sins, delivers from the passions, drives out demons; it heals sorrows; it cures illnesses, delivers from death; it raises the dead; it turns enemies into friends and sinners into righteous men; it removes mountains; it works every kind of miracle. A certain citizen in a certain town, living by faith and waging an unremitting warfare against the passions as a warrior of Christ, told me in conversation that by daily and hourly prayer of repentance and faith he almost unceasingly wrests from God the saving power that delivers him from all sins and passions; that amid countless temptations and inward falls into sin he in the end always proves the victor over the passions and the driver out of demonic fantasies and apparitions, the destroyer of the demons’ wiles—in a word, that by the mercy of God and through the faith of God given him he is a perpetual wonder to himself. This is what the prayer of faith, the prayer of repentance, means! So let us believe, so let us pray, and so let us conquer our passions! Amen.