The readings this Sunday are all about the salvation of the Gentiles–the nations, the non-Jews. As Jesus tells the Samaritan woman in John 4, “Salvation is from the Jews.”

However, salvation is not FOR the Jews alone.

And I love the story of Syro-Phoenician woman in today’s Gospel at Mass. I imagine she saw the love in the eyes of Jesus, and they emboldened her to press on in supplication, despite Jesus’s seeming rebuke.

Maybe something in her recognized that she needed that pushback, that resistance, to strengthen her. Maybe she recognized that Jesus was testing her faith for her own good.

Maybe she simply felt that desperate for her daughter, and her heart recognized who was in front of her. Whatever the case, she persisted in her pleading, and Jesus, quite explicitly, rewards her faith.

So when God seemingly ignores our most desperate prayers, remember the Syro-Phoenician woman. Remember that regardless of when or how He answers our prayer, He deeply loves our faith, and wants to draw that out. He deeply loves US, most of all, and will never deny us whatever we truly need to attain salvation, if we seek Him and His kingdom above all else.