Daily Catholic Lectio
Wed, 5 Aug 2026
XVIII Week in Ordinary Time
Jer 31:1-7. Mt 15:21-28
It Is Not Right
Today’s Gospel reading shows us that, in our life, there are things that go beyond “this is right” and “this is not right.”
It is not right that Jesus, who travels through a foreign region so that no one may notice Him, is recognised.
It is not right that a woman runs along the road shouting.
It is not right that a foreign woman speaks to a Jewish man, and that too, standing on the road.
It is not right that the mother of a daughter possessed by a demon stops a travelling teacher on the way and praises Him, saying, “Son of David.”
It is not right that the disciples say, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.”
It is not right that the One who came as the Saviour of the world limits His mission to Israel.
It is not right to take the food meant for the children and throw it to the little dogs.
Yes! These things are not right.
But that woman shows that life does not depend only on what is right and what is not right.
The little dogs eating the crumbs that fall from the table is not a matter of right or wrong. It is a matter of hunger, belonging, nature, and reality.
With her faith, the Canaanite woman breaks the structure that society has built around “right” and “not right.”
She shouts until she receives what she asks for. She runs until she obtains what she has shouted for. Little dogs are like that. They shout, they run, and they receive.
The one who sits at the table must understand one thing.
He is above. The dog is below. But within both, there is the same piece of bread.
That unnamed simple woman breaks the polar division of “right” and “not right.”
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
A Yesni Prays Initiative
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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