We all know what a beggar is; a beggar is someone who has to ask for something for nothing they can give nothing in return for what they’re asking for. Maybe we had to beg sometime, I had to beg on one occasion in Chile, I had to beg on the street for five pesos, it was extremely embarassing. In the gospel today The gospel tells us that Jesus entered Pagan territory; he went to the region of Tyre and Sidon (which would be Southern Lebanon today). There he encounters a lady who is begging, she is desperate, she is not asking for food, she is not asking for money, she is not looking for something trivial, she is begging for her daughter who is being troubled by a devil In those days’ people saw diseases as caused by the demons so she could have had any modern-day disease. She is a foreigner and she has no right to ask a Jew for anything and Jesus is a Jew. Jesus gives her a very strange answer, he says the food for the children which is the Jews, should not be given to the dogs who are the foreigners. It’s a very strange answer for Jesus to give. She could have gone away desperate ad humiliated, but no, she gives one of the most beautiful answers in the whole gospel. Churchill was known for these snappy responses: On one occasion this woman who found Churchill very hard to get on with said to him: ‘if I were your wife I would put poison in your tea’, he responded: ‘If I were your husband, I would drink that tea. Back to our woman in the gospel today, she says that the dogs can eat the crumbs that fall to the floor from the children’s table. Now the whole situation is changed, Jesus cures her daughter, but he also praises her great faith. Jesus wanted to cure her daughter even before she asked, but he wanted to give her this wonderful opportunity of making this humble and wonderful act of faith for us. So in this gospel passage, we get a glimpse into two hearts, the heart of Jesus which is full of compassion and goodness, which wants to work miracles in our lives, and the heart of this woman, who is not discouraged by a very harsh answer, but makes a great act of faith and humility. Then we can think of our own heart and pray that we may have a compassionate heart like Jesus, and at the same time a humble and believing heart, like the Cananaan woman. We also learn that for Jesus the word stranger, or foreigner has no meaning, every human person has an invitation to the heart of Jesus. Let every human person feel welcome in our hearts also.