August 17, 2026
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A) on August 16, 2026, at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chicago, IL. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Psalm 67; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; and Matthew 15:21-28.
Sometimes God makes it clear what we’re supposed to preach about. In recent years, our nation has been consumed by politics and policies upholding hatred as a public good. Today, all our readings deal with welcoming people of different nationalities, different ethnicities, and different faiths. There are no coincidences!
In our first reading, God announces that his justice is about to break through, and when it does, all foreigners will be welcome to worship on the LORD’s mountain. Paul concludes that Jews who reject the gospel are still part of God’s plan. Our gospel passage is one of the most challenging passages in Matthew. Jesus and his disciples are on their way to a beach vacation outside of Israel, and they meet a non-Jewish woman who asks for help. It may sound as if Jesus is disinterested in her. He seems to refer to her as a “dog,” and even today, that term is used in many parts of the world to disparage foreigners.
Some interpreters argue that the woman’s clever response causes Jesus to change his opinion. I think there’s a better way to interpret this story in the context of what’s we’ve heard from Matthew over the past 5 weekends. This is a 3-way conversation among the Canaanite woman, the disciples, and Jesus. Let’s not jump to conclusions about who is responding to whom! There are valid ways to interpret this passage so that it is open and inclusive in the same Spirit as our other readings today. God is inclusive in whom he chooses to shower with mercy. Let us celebrate that!
Lord Jesus, you gather all peoples and nations to your holy mountain:
Lord, have mercy.
You welcome the stranger, the foreigner, and the outcast:
Christ, have mercy.
You make us all joyful in your house of prayer:
Lord, have mercy.
Some people say that the Canaanite woman had to convince Jesus to expand God’s mercy. Really? Why would this be the one instance when Jesus, the Son of the Living God, who repeatedly preaches about the expansiveness of God’s mercy, makes a mistake until someone else corrects him?
We’re in chapter 15 of the Gospel of Matthew. Let’s look to chapters 13 and 14 for some help in interpreting this passage. Five weekends ago, Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven was like seed sown indiscriminately all over the land, but some seed fell on good soil and produced fruit 30- to 100-fold. Two weekends, when the disciples wanted to dismiss a crowd of 20,000 people, Jesus said, “feed them yourselves.” The disciples apparently didn’t remember Jesus’ teaching about the good soil, so Jesus showed them how to feed the crowd with five loaves and two fish.
Four weekends ago, Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven was like a mustard seed that grew into such a strong plant that it could support nesting birds in its branches. Then, last weekend, Peter took several steps on top of the pitching surface of the stormy sea, and when he began to sink, he sank at a rate much slower than what we would expect from the force of gravity.
Today’s passage is another example of how we are to bring forth the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said that the kingdom was like farmhands who should not try to separate the weeds from the wheat until the harvest or like fishermen who should not try to separate the bad fish from the good fish until they have brought the catch to shore. And yet, the disciples – perhaps because they don’t want to be bothered with a stranger while on their last weekend of summer vacation? – decide that the Canaanite woman is a weed or a bad fish. Jesus says nothing; the disciples beg Jesus to send the woman away because she’s bothering them.
When Jesus says that he came to save the lost sheep of Israel and that it’s not right to take food from children, I think he’s speaking to the disciples, testing them. Jesus had recently taught them about the expansiveness of God’s mercy. The disciples don’t get it, but the Canaanite woman does. Jesus has been spoon-feeding the disciples, but they fail to absorb even a crumb. Looking at the uncomprehending disciples, the woman points out that her request takes nothing away from the disciples. She is taking the food that they have chosen not to eat. And Jesus, who called Peter “you of little faith” last week, declares, “O woman, great is your faith!”
Now, let’s bring this lesson to here and now.
In the past 18 months, people in every parish in the near Southside of Chicago have witnessed the horrific treatment that their undocumented neighbors — as well as some documented immigrants and U. S. citizens — have received at the hands of our government. Politicians of all stripes have deliberately turned their backs on comprehensive immigration reform for decades, deciding that they can score more political “points” by pointing out the flaws in other plans, rather than offering their own. We probably can’t take in all 118 million people around the world today who are refugees, asylum seekers, or people forcibly displaced within their home countries,[
https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends. Accessed August 15, 2026.] but blatant cruelty is not the solution. As one of the richest and largest countries in the world, we must do our part to care for our brothers and sisters in crisis. Granted, we need to control our borders, but the scapegoating of immigrants is abhorrent and appalling. Statistics show that our undocumented brothers and sisters commit less crimes than other people in the United States, and their presence is a net gain for the economy and the employment of everyone else in the nation. Scapegoating had no place in the time of Isaiah, Jesus, or Paul, and it has no place in our society today. In the eyes of God, all people have equal dignity.1 If you haven’t read or watched the remarks that Cardinal Cupich made on the topic at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe last January, please consider praying with them.
Our first reading today came from a time of weakness for the Jewish people. They had just come back from exile themselves and were trying to make peace with the foreigners who had settled in their land while they were away, while at the same time, they were vulnerable to the attack of stronger nations all around them. And yet, at that moment, God foretold that all people would glorious stream towards their mountain and that the new temple that they were struggling to build would become a house of prayer for all people. If God felt the nation could welcome the stranger at that moment, we can surely welcome the strangers among us now.
And now to a different topic. Many of us, even if we come to Mass regularly at a parish we love, often feel like the Canaanite woman – on the outside, not fitting in. It’s natural to think that everyone else has their act together, and that we’re the only ones struggling. That is not the case.
Even secular advice columnists will tell you: when you feel out of sorts and you don’t belong, join a group at Church. You will make new friends. You will help build up the kingdom of God. You will grow in your faith, and you will grow in your relationship with God.
Please make the effort to come to the 11 am Mass next weekend and stay for Parish Picnic and Ministry Fair afterwards. Grab a hotdog and some chips, and introduce yourself to some people you don’t already know. You’ll have the chance to learn about the opportunities to assist with our various faith formation activities, our liturgical ministries, the Our Lady of Guadalupe Group, or the Knights of Columbus. We’ll have members of the Parish Pastoral Council around to answer your questions and hear your feedback on how you think things are going at Old St. Mary’s. If you can’t join us then, we will also have ministry fairs before back-to-school night on September 10 and after all the Masses on the weekend of September 19-20. As our Scriptures make clear today, there is room at God’s table for everyone!
Preview photo credit: Fibonacci Blue via Flickr under Creative Commons license
Notes:
- Cardinal Cupich’s text on January 19, 2025 (available in English, Spanish, and Polish). Video of Cardinal Cupich’s remarks (starting at 56:50 in Spanish, 1:00:28 in English). ↩