Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost; Octoechos Tone 8; The Holy Martyr Charitina.
2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1; Matthew 15:21-28.
Read Matthew 15:21-28
There are two sets of people – bounded sets and centered sets. A bounded set is defined by a distinct boundary determining membership based on specific criteria. Everyone inside the boundary is part of the set. A centered set is defined instead with reference to a central point and movement toward it. Everyone moving toward the center is part of the set regardless of distance from it.
The Catholic Church respects the boundaries of sacramental communion with Christ; baptism, chrismation/confirmation, and confession are required – bounded set. The Catholic Church is also “a pilgrim” (CCC 771). We are a community of people on a journey and, as such, call others to begin orienting themselves toward Christ and journey toward him too – centered set.
In Genesis 12 and 22, God says to Abraham, “by you and by your descendants all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.” A bounded set of people, Israel, was created but as a means of orienting the whole world toward God. In 1 Kings 8, King Solomon prays at the dedication of the temple, “when a foreigner, who is not of thy people Israel…comes and prays toward this house, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place…in order that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name and fear thee.”
The woman in today’s gospel is Canaanite, people Israel were to be separate from. This boundary is implicit in Jesus’s initial response to her. She acknowledges the bounded set of the holy nation of Israel but also replies with faith for the centered set blessings that are the hope of those turning to God through its witness.
St. Peter writes that we are now “a holy nation…that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”