Blessed Schuster’s Daily Thoughts on the Rule: Thursday after the First Sunday of Lent
Thursday after the First Sunday of Lent
Station at St Laurence ‘in Panisperna’
The Faith of a Pagan Woman
1.Today the station is on the Viminal hill, at Saint Laurence in Panisperna, on the site of his martyrdom, where there later arose a Benedictine abbey.
The Gospel reading tells of the Canaanite woman, who obtains the healing of her sick daughter.
From the beginning, the Lord employs a rather rigid demeanour with the woman; He does not reply to her, rather He declares that He has nothing to do with her. He ends finally by throwing away at her the degrading title—thoroughly oriental—of ‘dog of an unbeliever’.
The woman nonetheless is not discouraged, and her great faith sustains her. Finally, this same faith wrenches the miracle from the Lord, Who is driven to declare: ‘O woman, your faith is great. Be it done as you will.’ (Matt 15:28)
The brief Gospel reading could lend itself to a long treatise on the graces of prayer and the trials to which God subjects, with aridities and contradictions, the souls who pray.
Et factus in agonia, prolixius orabat. (Luke 22:13) [‘And being in agony, He prayed the longer.’] Here in Gethsemane is the exemplar and the model of Christian prayer.
Saint Benedict, who so often recommends to us the frequent exercise of prayer, Orationi frequenter incumbere (Rule, Ch. 4), has also written a special chapter on the dispositions with which it is necessary to come to it.
He wants prayer in general to be:
- a) non in multiloquio [not in much speaking];
- b) short and pure;
- c) in purity of heart;
- d) in compunction of tears;
- e) prolonged by the effect of divine inspiration.
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2.The disciples, moved to pity by the woman’s wailing and by the annoyance that her cries were causing them, say to the Divine Master: Send her away satisfied; for she is crying after us and a great crowd is gathering. But He observed: I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Here is foreshadowed the intercession of the Saints, who, presenting our prayers to God in Heaven, seem to repeat with the Apostles: dimitte illam. Send them away satisfied.
At times, however, that grace so desired does not enter into the plan of Divine Providence in our regard. At other times, instead, the Lord wants to put our faith to the test, and He waits till another time to heed us.
Hence is explained the Holy Rule’s insistence in recommending us to pray: ‘He who lasts longest wins.’
The Cassinese Patriarch [St Benedict] too, was seen to pray and to weep over the future destruction of Monte Cassino. He was not able to prevent it, because Divine Providence wanted to transfer the community of Cassino to Rome and to the Lateran, for the greater good of the Church.
Nonetheless, Saint Benedict obtained that none of his disciples should perish in that hostile destruction: Vix obtinere potui ut mihi ex hoc loco animae cederentur. (St Gregory, Dialogues II, 17: ‘With great labour I was able to obtain that the lives of those who live with me should be granted to me.’)
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3.‘Lord, even the little dogs eat under their masters’ tables the morsels that fall to them.’ (Matt 15:27)
The faith of this poor pagan mother is simply sublime! The Saviour Himself has proclaimed it nothing less. He first uses with her a very reserved demeanour—as is done in the Orient—and directs to her a word which sounds like an offense and a reproof for those of her nation. She receives it with even greater confidence, and she even makes use of it to insist in her demand.
Saint Benedict treats this humility very well in Chapter 7 of the Rule:
‘One reaches the fourth degree of humility when in obeying in harsh and adverse things, nay even in any injuries, the monk keeps silence patiently within himself, as the Scripture says: ‘He shall be saved who perseveres until the end.’
In the sixth degree of humility, the good disciple (rather than a little dog who stands under the table) even says within himself: ‘I am reduced to nothing…I am become with Thee as a beast of burden.’
