A “Canaanite woman” “called out to Jesus, ‘Have pity on me,’” “My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. Jesus’ disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.
Theological discussions about Jesus’ interaction with a foreign woman are important but incidental to the truth that Jesus was always healing people. He never denied healing to anyone. Jesus was so intent on healing people he intentionally crossed physical and social boundaries to do so. U.S. based self-titled Christians repeatedly violate Jesus’ intentionality about healing. They most especially violate his healing mission when it comes to children. They act in opposition to the mother in the Gospel and mothers across the U.S. who are desperately seeking healing for their children. Through the MAGA and MAHA based Trump Administration, children are being targeted with ignorance, illness, and death. The administration is targeting children with ignorance through dismantling the Department of Education, controlling curriculum on behalf of the master class to eradicate knowledge of common people, especially minorities; making cuts in early childhood education programs like Head Start; cutting staff and defunding programs that aid children with disabilities like Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); and reducing the availability of child care resources for low-income families like the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). The administration is targeting children with illness through cuts in programs for nutrition like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that provides food benefits to children in their homes and in their schools; and is cutting aid to Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) specifically cutting their fresh fruit and vegetable vouchers. The administration is targeting children with death through its rejection of asylum petitions and of Immigration and Child Welfare programs; cutting funds and staff for investigating sexual abuse of children & abuse of children, refusing to enforce child support payment mandates; its rejection of vaccine funding and vaccine recommendations; its rejection of environmental health by weakening regulations that protect all of us, especially children, from toxic chemicals but which increase the plunder of multinational chemical corporations; and through its promotion of gun violence though it’s the leading cause of death for children in the U.S. but which helps the corporate gun industry that’s so desperate for plunder it allows convicted domestic abusers to buy guns
“Corporations just don’t care, because their main priority is profit and growth. If the health of the people were the priority, we wouldn’t put so much money into specific commodity crops, and we wouldn’t decimate local food systems, and wouldn’t allow unlimited and unregulated marketing to children and low-income populations. And you have your food system, and then you have your built environment that was really built for cars and automobile profits, not for walkable and bikeable cities and towns. One of the main drivers of health that we know of is expanding healthcare access and expanding nutrition [program] access, and both of those just got the biggest cuts in U.S. history. So, the problem [with MAHA] is that they’re misdiagnosing the causes of the issue and directing everyone’s attention over here, while enacting policies that are actually making the problem even worse.” (Jessica Knurick – Research Scientist)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, guide us to be healers of children.
Question: Who are the children I have the opportunity to love and heal?
August 16, 2026 Gospel Matthew 15:21-28 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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