Getting Over Ourselves

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At my advanced age, I’m well aware of the stereotypes about the elderly.

My new friend, ChatGPT, of whom I’m still suspicious (One of the marks of an elderly stereotype?), has helped me list them. We are forgetful, confused by technology, slow, physically frail, dependent, stubborn, out-of-touch, resistant to change, grumpy, boring, conservative, and a burden on others.

I’m sure we've left some out. I assume that many of us fulfill these stereotypes but many of us don’t, at least not all of them. That’s why they’re called stereotypes, which my online dictionary defines as “a set of simplistic generalizations about a group that allows others to categorize them and treat them accordingly.”

Near the Mark?

But like most stereotypes, I think many of them are near the mark. Many of us have the temptation to think that, at an advanced age, we know just about everything and everybody worth knowing. Many young people, of course, have the same temptation, even though they may have little actual experience to back it up.

A gospel passage from a recent weekend liturgy shows that Jesus was well aware of these ways of judging others and may have even been caught up in them himself.

Jesus, who was a great teacher and healer, and the son of God, appeared, nonetheless, to be affected by the biases of his culture.

“…A Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon.’ But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she is crying after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’

Sr. Mary McGlone
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“But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ And he answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’ Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”

The passage, from Matthew’s gospel, is astonishing and touching. Before commenting further, I want to point out that it’s one of many gospel passages that show an honesty about Jesus and his disciples. It fails to paint them in a good light, which some critics of the Bible say the gospels always do.

Alexander Jones, a famous British biblical scholar who died in 2001, writes that Jesus went to the area of Tyre and Sidon, which borders Galilee – Jesus’ and the disciples’ home area - on the north, possibly to give his disciples a “respite” from their travels and work. The area was colonized by “Canaanites,” the hereditary enemies of Israel.

Jesus’ reply to the woman’s request, Jones writes in his commentary on the passage, is not as harsh as it reads because the Greek word in the passage “would be better translated ‘little dogs’ or ‘pet dogs.’ Still, it’s at least a mild rebuke. But the woman, who is unnamed, shows remarkable persistence and is rewarded for it.

Recognized, and Responded

The passage shows that Jesus, though strapped with the biases of his time and culture, overcame them and recognized and responded to a suffering woman who asked for his help.

Sister Mary McGlone, who writes for the National Catholic Reporter about Scripture passages used in weekly liturgies by Catholics and others, says the passage about the Canaanite woman “highlights Jesus’ humble willingness to learn.”

The reading calls us “to enlarge our hearts and souls,” she writes.

“First, we need to recognize our prejudices, the judgments we make about others, and our certainty that our way is the only – or even the best way - to eat, work, play, pray and relate to one another. There’s no human group whose members don’t need to learn to get over themselves.”