A Pedagogy of Mercy

Homily for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Back in 1968 there was a Brazilian Educator and Philosopher named Paulo Freire who wrote a book entitled: The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In a nutshell, Freire argued how education, or the lack there of, in his own South America could keep so many people oppressed and unaware of their oppression. So he advocated for a pedagogy that would liberate and allow the oppressed to recognize their situation and advocate for justice and fair treatment.

In that spirit I would like to offer this morning A Pedagogy of Mercy that maybe in some small way might liberate us so we might be sources of inclusion and mercy in a world so bent on polarization, exclusion, and retaliation.

Our gospel today, the encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite Woman, provides us such an education in mercy. It has been in vogue the last so many years to interpret this gospel passage as an example of how, a very Jewish, very male, and very “human” Jesus needed himself to learn inclusion and mercy. That is certainly a legitimate and useful interpretation, but I want to suggest a different tack.

There is a long history among the Hebrew Prophets and Jewish Rabbis that basically says: “Actions speak louder than words.” How many times did God ask the prophets to act out a scenario to get the attention of the people and call them back to fidelity? Jeremiah was asked to dig a hole and bury a loincloth. Ezekiel, was asked to dig a hole through the city wall and tunnel through it. And Hosea was asked to marry a prostitute… all to make a very clear point to Israel about its infidelity and to point out to them the very real possibility of exile while encouraging them to once again freely choose faithfulness.

I believe Jesus, in our gospel today, is intentionally following in this rich tradition of actions speaking louder than words. He demonstrates the possibility for A Pedagogy of Mercy by drawing up before our eyes and convicting us of our own practices that contribute to exclusion, polarization, and retaliation and reminding us that we are always free to make another choice.

Jesus encounters an outsider. She is really a double outsider: a Canaanite foreigner and a woman. So Jesus, in response to her pleas for mercy and healing for her daughter, does what we can all too easily do… He doesn’t even seem to see her. When someone is so far outside our understanding of who belongs and who doesn’t we too can get caught up in “other blindness.”

But the woman is persistent, even in the face of the disciples trying to shoo her away! So now Jesus has to see her and he has to respond to her. So he reminds her that based on the law, as well as the religious, and cultural norms of the day she does not belong! But as she still persists, Jesus does what so many people do in such situations… he turns to dehumanizing insults. He calls her a dog, something unworthy of his attention. But the woman continues and admits: “Well if I am a dog even the dogs get the scraps from the Master’s table.” And then suddenly Jesus offers the unexpected moment of praise, a moment that breaks the cycle leading to violence by injecting mercy, he says: “O woman, great is your faith!” And she receives what she most longs for: Healing for her daughter and inclusion for herself.

Perhaps we all recognize the workings of that same cycle in ourselves? We are perhaps in someway also plagued by “other blindness.” When someone outside our circle seeks to be recognized perhaps we don’t even see them. But if they persist then we have to see them so we immediately remind them of their place and how they should keep it! And if they persist further we might even be tempted to dehumanize them with insults and if they persist after that the next dangerous step is too often some form of violence.

Jesus, in the gospel, takes us right up to that point. He takes us right up to that dangerous place and reminds us, that even there, we are still free to make a choice: Either we can see this person as someone just like me and offer them mercy, which always provides healing and inclusion. Or we can mindlessly follow the dangerous cycle to its inevitable end and participate, even in some small way, in that person’s destruction.

So, I would like to suggest that in our gospel today, Jesus knows exactly what he is doing. He is trying to shock us out of our “other blindness”; trying to shock us into seeing our own exclusionary and retaliatory behavior. As he also reminds us of the very good news that no matter how far down the road we take that behavior we are always free to choose the mercy that utterly transforms the situation, the other, ourselves, and the cultural/religious systems in which we operate.

For Paulo Freire the Pedagogy of the Oppressed was only successful in so far as it was able to open the eyes of those being demeaned so they could see their oppression and advocate for their own liberation. Really the same is true for our gospel passage. This Pedagogy of Mercy is only successful in so far as it opens our eyes to see how we participate in systems of exclusion and how, in Christ, we are always free to make the choice for mercy.