XX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

The Universality of Salvation

Readings: Is 56:1,6-7; Rom 11:13-15,29-32; Mt 15:21-28

Towards the end of the 4th century BC, upon the return from exile, harshly ethnic-nationalist visions prevailed in Israel, excluding foreigners from the reconstruction of the Temple and placing them outside the logic of the Promise and salvation (Ezra 4:1-3; Neh 13:3). The prophetic text cited in the first reading (Is 56:1,6-7), together with the books of Ruth and Jonah, affirms instead that all people are called to belong to the People of God.

Jesus conceives his earthly mission as essentially limited to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to fulfill the Promise of Israel’s election (today’s Gospel: Mt 15:24), and when he sends his disciples on mission he recommends: “Do not go among the Gentiles” (Mt 10:5). But at the same time he proclaims the universality of salvation: when he speaks of the Kingdom of God as the tree on which “all” the birds of the air perch, of the banquet with “every type” of guests (Lk 13:29: “They will come from east and west, from north and south, and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God”), of the Spirit blowing “where it wills” (Jn 3:8), of the Kingdom reserved for all the poor (Lk 6:20-21) and for those who help them (Mt 25), of his body and his blood poured out for “the many” for the forgiveness of sins (Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24). Signs of this call of everyone to salvation are the Canaanite woman praised by today’s Gospel for her faith (Mt 15:21-28) as well as the royal official (Jn 4:46-54), and the Samaritan woman of Sychar, symbol of all those who seek God (Jn 4).

Once the time of Jesus ends, the time of the Church begins. And the mission of Christians is clearly to all nations: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:18-20); “You will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Acts of the Apostles are the story of the progression of evangelization to all people of all cultures (think of the miracle of tongues on the day of Pentecost: Acts 2:7-12). Paul, the great missionary, is called to be “the apostle to the Gentiles” (second reading: Rom 11:12; cf. Gal 1:16), and affirms: “God, our Savior, wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4); for God is indeed “the Savior of all people” (1 Tim 4:10). Revelation will present the vision of the crowd of the saved “that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev 7:1-9).

Salvation flows from God’s infinite mercy, who redeems us by pure grace while we are in the disobedience of sin (second reading: Rom 11:30-32); but it requires our faith, as the Canaanite woman teaches us today (Mt 15:28), that is, “adhering to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants…, holding fast to the Covenant” (first reading: Is 56:6).

Paul in the second reading reminds us that Israel too will ultimately participate in salvation, making explicit the “mystery” (Rom 11:25) of the chosen people: the rejection by a part of the Jews coincided with the redemption of the Gentiles (Rom 11:11), but all Israel, when all nations have converted, will ultimately recognize Jesus as Messiah (Rom 11:25), and its conversion will coincide with the end of time and the final resurrection (Rom 11:15). Therefore, the attitude of the Church towards Israel can only be one of veneration (Rom 11:17-18: they are “the root”, “the cultivated olive tree”, and we are only “the wild olive shoot grafted among them”), of humility (Rom 11:21: “For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either!”), and of confident expectation. This does not prevent us from being able and having to condemn those politicians in Israel who commit massacres and genocide!

The Apostle concludes: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God…! For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom 11:33,36).