Mathew 15:21-28 What happens to our faith when God does not answer our prayers in the way we expect? That is one of the most important questions that we should ask ourselves today. In today’s Gospel, we observe a Canaanite woman coming to Jesus with a desperate prayer: “Lord, help me.” Her daughter is suffering, and she believes that Jesus can help her.
But what happens next? Jesus does not answer her immediately. There is silence, and there seems to be rejection. Even the disciples want her to go away. But she does not leave. She keeps going after Jesus. She keeps asking. She keeps kneeling. She keeps believing. Looking at her life, we can say that this woman had stable faith because her faith was based on who Jesus was.
Here I would like to make a simple contrast between the faith of the Canaanite woman and the faith of Peter, the disciple of Jesus. Peter also had faith. When he saw Jesus walking on the water, he stepped out of the boat and began walking towards Him. But then he noticed the wind and the waves. His eyes moved from Jesus to the storm, and he began to sink.
Jesus reaches out to Peter and says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Now look at the Canaanite woman. Peter sees the storm, becomes frightened, and his eyes move from Jesus to the waves. But the woman faces something even harder—silence, rejection, delay and humiliation—yet she keeps kneeling before Jesus. Peter’s eyes move from Jesus to the storm; the woman’s eyes remain fixed on Jesus. Peter allows what is happening around him to weaken his faith, but the woman doesn’t allow her circumstances to decide what she believes about Jesus. That is what makes her faith so stable: the situation may change, and even God may seem silent—but her eyes remain fixed on Jesus.
Sometimes we treat faith like a contract with God: we say to God, “I will trust you if you give me what I ask for.” But the Canaanite woman teaches us something deeper: “Lord, whether you answer me today or tomorrow, I will trust you. Whether I understand or not, I will remain with you.”
In our life, when God seems silent, let us remember this Canaanite woman. She does not understand Jesus’ silence, but she does not leave Jesus. She keeps her eyes fixed on Him. That is stable faith. So, let us kneel before God when we do not understand, wait when we cannot see the way forward, and keep trusting when the answer has not yet come.