# Bishop Barron – How We Often Misunderstand the Story of the Syrophoenician Woman

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 9 Sep 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74918838/how_not_to_read_the_story_of_the_syrophoenician_woman.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends, the title of my sermon
[0:02] Speaker 1: for this 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time is How Not
[0:06] Speaker 1: to Read the Story of the Syrophoenician Woman. You know
[0:10] Speaker 1: the story well. You've heard it, I'm sure, over and
[0:12] Speaker 1: over again. Jesus wanders into this country outside the borders
[0:15] Speaker 1: of ancient Israel, and he runs across this woman, a
[0:18] Speaker 1: Syrophoenician woman, who has a request. Could you please help
[0:22] Speaker 1: my daughter? She's possessed by a dark spirit. And then
[0:25] Speaker 1: Jesus sort of famously puts her off. First, he He
[0:30] Speaker 1: ignores her, doesn't say anything to her. And then when
[0:33] Speaker 1: she presses, he says, no, no, no, I've just been
[0:35] Speaker 1: sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
[0:37] Speaker 1: you know, not to you foreigners by implication. And then
[0:41] Speaker 1: when she keeps pressing, we get this line that, I mean,
[0:44] Speaker 1: just seems so almost cruel. It's not right to take
[0:48] Speaker 1: the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.
[0:50] Speaker 1: So first kind of indifference, and then look, I'm just
[0:54] Speaker 1: for Israel. And then finally, I'm not throwing, you know,
[0:57] Speaker 1: food to the dogs. I mean, it's pretty off-putting stuff, right?
[1:02] Speaker 1: And then she has one of the most famous, you know,
[1:04] Speaker 1: snappy comebacks in literary history. You know, well, at least,
[1:08] Speaker 1: you know, the dogs eat the scraps that fall from
[1:10] Speaker 1: the table. And then Jesus comes around. Okay, I'm going
[1:12] Speaker 1: to cure your daughter. Okay, how not to read the story,
[1:17] Speaker 1: even though maybe you've heard a dozen homilies in this regard. Well,
[1:22] Speaker 1: Jesus is tired out after a tough day of ministry
[1:25] Speaker 1: and travel, and he's kind of cranky, and this sort
[1:29] Speaker 1: of annoying woman comes along. And so he puts her off,
[1:32] Speaker 1: and then he throws a sort of off-putting remark, and
[1:36] Speaker 1: then he finally insults her. He's difficult with her. And
[1:39] Speaker 1: then she's so clever and has this kind of plucky
[1:43] Speaker 1: comeback line. He says, okay, I'll do what you want.
[1:47] Speaker 1: In fact, you know, I've really learned a lot from
[1:49] Speaker 1: you and I've learned a lot from your, you know, persistence.
[1:52] Speaker 1: And so I'm a better person for having come across you.
[1:56] Speaker 1: All right. Look, I've been involved in pastoral ministry for
[1:59] Speaker 1: much of my life. Talk to any priest, anyone involved
[2:02] Speaker 1: in pastoral work. Sure, we all get, you know, sometimes
[2:06] Speaker 1: you're cranky. It's been a long day. Sometimes people are
[2:08] Speaker 1: kind of annoying and then we lose our temper. We're
[2:10] Speaker 1: short and we're difficult with them. Okay. Okay. When it
[2:13] Speaker 1: comes to us, sure, I get that. But the problem, everybody,
[2:17] Speaker 1: is you can't turn Jesus into a sinner. That he's tired, okay,
[2:23] Speaker 1: and maybe psychologically cranky, okay. But you can't turn Jesus
[2:28] Speaker 1: into a sinner who's being aggressive toward this woman. If
[2:32] Speaker 1: he's a sinner, he needs a Savior. If he's a sinner,
[2:36] Speaker 1: he's not the Savior himself. And the whole structure of
[2:39] Speaker 1: Christianity falls apart. Now, besides that, it's a great interpretation.
[2:44] Speaker 1: I'm saying so. Don't read it that way. I know
[2:47] Speaker 1: it's trendy. I know it appeals to kind of our
[2:49] Speaker 1: psychological experience, but it's not the way to read it.
[2:53] Speaker 1: The Church Fathers had a much, much better and more
[2:57] Speaker 1: convincing reading of this that actually is spiritually much more
[3:00] Speaker 1: helpful than saying, hey, you know, cranky Jesus had a
[3:03] Speaker 1: bad day, and plucky gal from Syrophoenicia, you know, straighten
[3:08] Speaker 1: him out. I mean, forget that. What's this about? It's
[3:13] Speaker 1: about the testing of faith, that faith might grow. The principle,
[3:20] Speaker 1: and we all know it, everybody, we all know the principle,
[3:22] Speaker 1: that powers in us grow, deepen, develop in the measure
[3:30] Speaker 1: that they are opposed, that they find some resistance. And
[3:35] Speaker 1: it's in fighting against the resistance that we grow, right?
[3:40] Speaker 1: I mean, it's a basic principle. I'm going to give
[3:43] Speaker 1: you Some, and maybe they're stupid examples, but they're from
[3:46] Speaker 1: my own, you know, experience. Once you see this principle,
[3:50] Speaker 1: you can see it, of course, in your own life.
[3:52] Speaker 1: Here's the first one. So when I was a little kid,
[3:55] Speaker 1: I was a good baseball player. I played all the
[3:58] Speaker 1: main sports, you know, basketball and football and so on.
[4:01] Speaker 1: But baseball was my best game. And I was a
[4:03] Speaker 1: good defensive player, and I did a little bit of pitching,
[4:05] Speaker 1: and I played shortstop, usually. But I was an especially
[4:08] Speaker 1: good hitter. One year, I must have been like in
[4:11] Speaker 1: seventh grade, maybe, Little League. No kidding, my batting average
[4:15] Speaker 1: was in the 600s, and I kept it very carefully.
[4:20] Speaker 1: You know, in those days, before I read all these books,
[4:23] Speaker 1: I had good eyesight, I had good hand-eye coordination, and
[4:27] Speaker 1: Little League pitching is not exactly, you know, world-class. So
[4:30] Speaker 1: I was able to hit the ball really well, right?
[4:33] Speaker 1: So one year, maybe it was the following year, I
[4:37] Speaker 1: made the all-star team for our Little League, right? And
[4:41] Speaker 1: I find myself at all-star level. practice. So, you know,
[4:45] Speaker 1: the better players are there. And I'm up at the
[4:48] Speaker 1: plate during practice, and I'm just hitting line drive after
[4:51] Speaker 1: line drive, boom, boom, against, you know, a fellow Little
[4:55] Speaker 1: League pitcher. Well, there was a coach, and it was
[5:00] Speaker 1: the All-Star team, so I didn't really know him that well.
[5:01] Speaker 1: He was an All-Star coach. And he came to the mound,
[5:04] Speaker 1: and he saw that I was hitting really well. And
[5:06] Speaker 1: he said to me, you know, I'd like to show
[5:08] Speaker 1: you something. So he got up to the mound, and
[5:11] Speaker 1: he himself was, if I remember right, He was a
[5:14] Speaker 1: college player, you know, pretty accomplished player. And so I'm
[5:17] Speaker 1: at the plate, just used to Little League pitching. And
[5:20] Speaker 1: he winds up and threw the first real curveball I
[5:24] Speaker 1: had ever seen. So Little League, you know, they're throwing
[5:29] Speaker 1: middle speed fastballs at you, you know, the easiest kind
[5:32] Speaker 1: of pitch. Well, I stood up there and this pitch
[5:35] Speaker 1: is coming at me. And it was so shocking. I'd
[5:38] Speaker 1: never seen the real movement of a curveball, the kind
[5:42] Speaker 1: of curves and drops, right? And so I remember I
[5:46] Speaker 1: stepped out of the box because I was so convinced
[5:49] Speaker 1: the ball was going to hit me. And then it
[5:51] Speaker 1: breaks right over the plate. To this day, I remember
[5:55] Speaker 1: that experience. Well, look, if I just stayed at the
[5:59] Speaker 1: level of hitting, you know, against little league fastballs, well, yeah,
[6:04] Speaker 1: I was a good hitter. but I'd never get any better.
[6:09] Speaker 1: What did the coach do then? He saw the reaction
[6:11] Speaker 1: that I had, and he then started working with me
[6:15] Speaker 1: of how to wait on a pitch, how to see
[6:18] Speaker 1: the spin of the ball, how to anticipate a curveball,
[6:22] Speaker 1: how to discern that difference, how to stand in there,
[6:25] Speaker 1: don't jump out of the batter's box. And he made me,
[6:30] Speaker 1: by this resistance, a much better hitter Right? But by
[6:35] Speaker 1: putting up an obstacle in front of me, like throwing
[6:38] Speaker 1: me a real curveball, he made me a better hitter.
[6:42] Speaker 1: Let me give you an analogy, but now from analogous
[6:45] Speaker 1: experience from my academic life. So maybe a couple years later,
[6:50] Speaker 1: I'm a freshman at Fenwick High School outside Chicago and
[6:54] Speaker 1: take an English class. We had a great teacher. He
[6:57] Speaker 1: died not long ago, just a few years ago, and
[7:00] Speaker 1: his name was Mr. Langenderfer. Uh, We all made fun
[7:03] Speaker 1: of his name, of course, being high school kids. But Mr.
[7:07] Speaker 1: Langenderfer was an outstanding teacher, and he taught English, grammar,
[7:12] Speaker 1: and composition. And he was a tough teacher. The ones
[7:17] Speaker 1: you remember, right, are the tough teachers you had. And
[7:20] Speaker 1: every week, he made us write an essay, and we'd
[7:24] Speaker 1: hand them in, and he'd grade them. But then he
[7:26] Speaker 1: would choose what he thought was the best essay and
[7:29] Speaker 1: what he thought was the worst essay. Now, he wouldn't
[7:31] Speaker 1: give the names. He wouldn't humiliate us that way. But
[7:33] Speaker 1: he would read what he thought was a good essay
[7:35] Speaker 1: and tell us why, and then he'd read a bad
[7:39] Speaker 1: essay and point out what was wrong with it. Well,
[7:44] Speaker 1: I remember one time— I still remember it vividly, it
[7:46] Speaker 1: was 50 years ago— he's reading this as a bad essay.
[7:51] Speaker 1: It was mine. It was my essay. And even though
[7:54] Speaker 1: he didn't give the name, I was so embarrassed. I
[7:56] Speaker 1: remember I was so humiliated. And he was ruthless. going
[8:01] Speaker 1: through the syntax, the grammar, the spelling, the sentence structure, everything,
[8:06] Speaker 1: and just pointing out how terrible this essay was. Well, look, look,
[8:12] Speaker 1: I've spent most of my life as a writer. You know,
[8:15] Speaker 1: I have a doctorate, and I've written 30 books, and
[8:19] Speaker 1: I write almost every day. I almost every day think
[8:24] Speaker 1: of him and think of something he taught me. I
[8:29] Speaker 1: would have been the worst writer in the world unless
[8:32] Speaker 1: he had resisted me, had put up an obstacle to me,
[8:36] Speaker 1: had humiliated me even. And he did humiliate me. But
[8:42] Speaker 1: I wouldn't have gotten any better if that hadn't happened.
[8:45] Speaker 1: He wouldn't have called forth the power of writing unless
[8:50] Speaker 1: he had opposed me. I'll give you one more example.
[8:53] Speaker 1: It's now a few years after that. I'm at Catholic
[8:57] Speaker 1: U in Washington. I'm studying philosophy, right? I love philosophy.
[9:00] Speaker 1: And I kind of find my way to read these
[9:02] Speaker 1: great texts. And in class, I could understand what was
[9:04] Speaker 1: being said. And I would raise a question and get
[9:07] Speaker 1: an answer. Okay. Well, one day, I think it was
[9:09] Speaker 1: my second year at Catholic U, it was a class
[9:13] Speaker 1: with Dr. Dan Dahlstrom, who eventually became my master's thesis director.
[9:18] Speaker 1: Wonderful guy. He was a very young man at the time.
[9:19] Speaker 1: And Hegel, a Heidegger specialist. So we really admired him
[9:24] Speaker 1: and brilliant fellow. Well, in class, we were talking about
[9:27] Speaker 1: this famous problem of divine foreknowledge and human freedom. How
[9:30] Speaker 1: can we be free if God knows what's going to
[9:33] Speaker 1: happen and God is omniscient and infallible, right? It's a
[9:36] Speaker 1: classic old problem in philosophy. So he was teaching. I
[9:41] Speaker 1: asked a question. He gave an answer. And then I
[9:44] Speaker 1: asked a follow-up question. And then he gave an answer.
[9:49] Speaker 1: And then I answered back. And I remember he looked
[9:52] Speaker 1: at me. And he's used to teaching undergraduates and all that.
[9:56] Speaker 1: And he kind of winked at me, and he said, okay,
[10:00] Speaker 1: make your case. And at that moment, the class is watching.
[10:05] Speaker 1: This professor I really admired was challenging me. Don't just
[10:10] Speaker 1: ask a question, but you seem unhappy with the answer
[10:14] Speaker 1: I'm giving, so make your argument. And so I did.
[10:19] Speaker 1: And then he resisted me and answered, and then I
[10:22] Speaker 1: had to answer back. But I remember it to this day,
[10:27] Speaker 1: it felt like wings coming out of my back, that
[10:32] Speaker 1: I was flying for the first time. I wasn't just
[10:37] Speaker 1: learning philosophy or responding to or asking a question. I
[10:42] Speaker 1: was actually philosophizing. Now, poorly and in a jejune manner,
[10:47] Speaker 1: I'm sure, but He was putting up a resistance to
[10:52] Speaker 1: me that was calling forth a deeper capacity, made me
[10:58] Speaker 1: a better philosopher. All right. I'm sure by now I
[11:04] Speaker 1: belabored the point. You get it. Our powers grow through resistance. Now, faith.
[11:15] Speaker 1: What's faith? It's trust in God, right? Do you trust
[11:19] Speaker 1: in God? Yeah, I sure do. And that's why I
[11:22] Speaker 1: am asking God for this, and I expect to get it. Okay.
[11:26] Speaker 1: What if you don't get it right away? I'm pretty
[11:30] Speaker 1: mad about that. How come he's not doing it? I
[11:34] Speaker 1: keep asking. Okay, I'll ask again. I trust in God,
[11:39] Speaker 1: and I'm still not getting what I want. Okay. One
[11:44] Speaker 1: option is to give up and say, okay, I'm done
[11:46] Speaker 1: with this. Like I could have said when that curveball
[11:48] Speaker 1: came at me, like, all right, I'm done with baseball.
[11:49] Speaker 1: I I can't handle that. Or when Dan Dahlstrom said,
[11:54] Speaker 1: make your case. I don't know. I'm not up to
[11:56] Speaker 1: making a case. No, but in both of those instances,
[12:00] Speaker 1: I responded to the challenge by deepening my capacity to
[12:05] Speaker 1: hit and my capacity to make an argument. So faith, faith,
[12:11] Speaker 1: trust in God. Does God resist us, not out of capricious,
[12:18] Speaker 1: you know— dislike of us, not to show off his power.
[12:24] Speaker 1: But he resists us precisely to draw out our trust
[12:30] Speaker 1: more and more. Remember, I've quoted before that line from
[12:34] Speaker 1: Augustine about prayer, petitionary prayer. When you ask God for something,
[12:38] Speaker 1: and Augustine says, when you don't get it and you
[12:42] Speaker 1: get frustrated, I mean, why wouldn't God just give it
[12:45] Speaker 1: to me? His answer is because your soul is has
[12:49] Speaker 1: to expand so as to receive the gift that God
[12:54] Speaker 1: wants to give you. It's by resistance, see, that your
[12:58] Speaker 1: faith grows. You know, you see it in the spiritual
[13:01] Speaker 1: monastic tradition, you know, the idea of someone coming to
[13:05] Speaker 1: a monastery. I want to join the monastery. No, no,
[13:09] Speaker 1: wait outside. Do I have an answer? No, no, just
[13:12] Speaker 1: wait outside. The whole day, maybe the whole night, next morning.
[13:18] Speaker 1: The monk comes out. Oh, you're still there. Yeah, I
[13:21] Speaker 1: want to become a monk. All right, well, we'll get
[13:23] Speaker 1: back to you. What do you mean get back to me?
[13:24] Speaker 1: I've been waiting all night. We'll get back to you.
[13:28] Speaker 1: What's the idea? Well, they're testing to see whether this
[13:33] Speaker 1: hunger for the monastic life can grow to the point
[13:36] Speaker 1: where you're really capable of it. You know, by the way,
[13:38] Speaker 1: watch the movie Fight Club, one of my favorite movies.
[13:41] Speaker 1: And remember, these guys want to join this little society,
[13:44] Speaker 1: and they stand outside. And Brad Pitt comes out, no, no, no,
[13:49] Speaker 1: go away, you're too fat, no, no, you're too old,
[13:52] Speaker 1: you're too young. And he puts them off, puts them off,
[13:55] Speaker 1: puts them off, until he knows, okay, they've got what
[13:59] Speaker 1: it takes. That's an old monastic move. All right, you
[14:03] Speaker 1: see my point. The Syrophoenician woman is not convincing a
[14:08] Speaker 1: sinful Jesus to see it her way. Rather, Jesus the Messiah,
[14:14] Speaker 1: the Lord, is convincing testing her by these three levels
[14:18] Speaker 1: of resistance. First, ignoring her. Second, kind of putting her off.
[14:22] Speaker 1: And thirdly, insulting her. But each level, he's drawing forth
[14:27] Speaker 1: a deeper faith. Now listen, and I'll close with this.
[14:31] Speaker 1: After her snappy comeback, you know, even the dogs eat
[14:34] Speaker 1: the scraps that fall from the table. Jesus said to reply, listen,
[14:38] Speaker 1: oh woman, great is your faith. Her faith expanded. Her
[14:44] Speaker 1: faith became great precisely in the process of being resisted.
[14:50] Speaker 1: May I humbly suggest, now I'm in line with Augustine
[14:52] Speaker 1: Aquinas and the whole tradition, that's a better way to
[14:56] Speaker 1: read the story of the Syrophoenician woman. And God bless you.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.