A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLES

XX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME:

The Israelites were always a very nationalistic nation,  who jealously kept their culture and their religion, avoiding to get mixed up with others and loose their identity. They considered themselves as the chosen of God and object of his special predilection. They saw themselves as the only ones destined for salvation, and God would set them up as a kingdom over the kingdoms of the earth. 

With the prophets, it came the awareness of the universality of God’s design and plan of salvation. Anybody from any nation can belong to the people of God, once they recognise YHWH as their Lord and God and once they are ready to keep his commands and follow his law.

Isaiah makes it very clear: 

“Foreigners who have attached themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love his name and be his servants – all who observe the sabbath, not profaning it, and cling to my covenant – these I will bring to my holy mountain. I will make them joyful in my house of prayer.” The house of the Lord “will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” (Is 56:6-7).

Jesus would use this same proclamation (Mk 11:17), when he cleansed the Temple. The house of the Lord is open to all and all those who listen to the Lord are most welcome in his kingdom. God is not a chauvinist, and Jesus ordered his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all peoples and nations (Mt 28:19).

It was difficult for the people of Israel to understand this universality of God’s plan of salvation. In his ministry, Jesus did not go much out of the borders of Israel, but sometimes he crossed to the other side of the Jordan and he went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. There, seeing the extraordinary faith of a Canaanite woman, he healed his daughter. Although Jesus is presented time and again as the Saviour of the world, in this passage (Mt 15:21-28), he says that he was sent only to the House of Israel. However, his mission to the House of Israel was to set the foundation for the new Temple, and to widen the horizons that would become universal. In the House of the Lord, all are welcome, if like the Canaanite they clearly express their faith in Jesus, the Christ.