Whatever bad weather and humans do against plants and animals, they will again surprise people with their unshakable constancy in the fulfillment of the task given to them by God. As long as a cut or mowed blade of grass has enough strength to grow again, it will grow. And as long as a wounded and lonely animal has at least a little strength to live, it will live and do its duty.

All human daily life is full of lessons of constancy. Only with the help of constancy does the warrior achieve victory, the artisan - perfection in his craft, the merchant - riches, the priest - the correction of morals in his parish. Constancy perfects the man of prayer to the level of a saint; constancy reveals to the artist the inner beauty of the object; Constancy helps the scientist to discover rules and laws in the relations between objects. Even the most talented child will never learn to write if he does not constantly practice penmanship; And a person with the most beautiful voice will never become a good singer without exercises in singing. Look: we are accustomed to reminding others of constancy every day, and we are accustomed to being reminded by others of constancy in our ordinary household chores. Constancy is probably the only virtue of which no one doubts, and which every one advises to acquire. But all this constancy in deeds, which we hear about every day, is only our school for inner constancy in the spiritual realm. All the outward constancy in the polishing and cultivation of things, in the accumulation of riches, knowledge, and skills, is only an image of that gigantic constancy which we must have in the polishing and cultivation of our heart, in the nourishment and enrichment of our soul, our inner imperishable and immortal man. The Holy Scriptures, finally, with each of their pages, teach us constancy in the spiritual life; teaches us both in words and in the greatest examples of human constancy and impermanence. Two terrible examples of inconstancy in good are shown in Adam, the forefather of the human race, and in Judas, first an apostle and then a traitor. Both were placed by the mercy of God in the closest proximity to God: Adam was with God in paradise, Judas with Christ on earth. Both began with obedience to God and ended with treachery. Judas's fate is all the more terrible than Adam's, because he already had before him the example of Adam. Saul was also inconstant in the struggle, and therefore he was mad; Solomon was also unstable, and therefore his kingdom was divided. But what a wondrous and almost superhuman constancy Abraham displays in his faith in God! And Jacob in meekness! And Joseph in chastity! And David in repentance! And the righteous Job is patient! What a Divine example of constancy the Most Holy Virgin Mary in purity shows! And righteous Joseph in obedience to God! And the apostles in devotion to God and love of God! Truly, in the Holy Scriptures there are so many obvious and clear examples of how constancy in good deeds always triumphs and is crowned, that none of us who read it will be able to excuse ourselves, as if we did not know about it or were not taught about it. How could hundreds of thousands of saints, virgins and martyrs from the time of Christ to our days know about this, and we do not know? We know, but we do not have the determination to be permanent. And to know and not to have constancy in good means to incur increased condemnation upon oneself. Whoever does not know about the way of good, and therefore does not follow them, will be beaten little. But whoever knows this way and does not follow it will be beaten many.

The path to good goes uphill, and at first it is very difficult for one who is accustomed to walking on a plain or down a mountain. He who follows the path of good and returns will not be able to remain in the place from which he originally went up the mountain, but will fall much lower into darkness and the abyss. That is why the Lord says that no one is trustworthy for the Kingdom of God who puts his hand to the plough and looks back (Luke 9:62).

Today's Gospel reading tells of a beautiful example of constancy in faith and prayer, shown by an ordinary woman, and a pagan one at that. If only this example were to fall like a living fire on the conscience of all those who call themselves believers, but in faith and prayer are like a hard and cold stone!

And Jesus went out from thence, and withdrew to the countries of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, the Canaanite woman came out of those places, and cried out to Him, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is violently possessed. Where did Jesus come from? From Galilee, from the land of the people of Israel, descended from the blessed Shem. Where did He go? To the land where the Canaanites lived, the descendants of the accursed Ham. In this way, the Lord went out from the blessed and came to the damned. Why? For the blessed have forgotten God and become damned, and some of the damned have acknowledged God and obtained blessings. Having reproached the scribes and Pharisees for the formal observance of external rites and for the violation of God's commandments about mercy and reverence for parents, the Lord and His disciples withdrew into a pagan land.

Why does He come to the Gentiles, when He had previously commanded the disciples to go especially to the people of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6)? First, as the all-wise Chrysostom says, no commandment given to His disciples binds Him. Secondly, He saw that the Jews rejected Him and foresaw that in the end they would reject Him completely. God is faithful to His promise: He promised through the prophets to send a Savior to the Jewish people. God has done this. But the Jewish people rejected the Saviour through their leaders. But since God is rich in the ways of realizing His economy, the work of salvation was not delayed by this rejection of Christ by the Jews, much less stopped. The Savior transgresses the boundaries of the Jewish people and goes to other nations. Consistent and faithful to His promise, the Lord sends His disciples first to the Jewish people; but after the crucifixion, the risen Christ sends them to all nations. And, finally, the third reason: the Lord wanted to once again shame the God-chosen and blessed people, showing them the faith of the pagans, in order to bring them to repentance and return them to God. The first time He did this was in Capernaum on the example of a Roman centurion, who, being a Roman, belonged to the tribe of Japheth, and who showed an example of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, the descendants of Japheth and Ham will be summoned by the King of Heaven to the royal feast, since the descendants of Shem, the elect and the first-called, refuse the invitation. This should have served as a warning and reproach. But all the same, the Jews persisted to the end, which is why they were rejected by the Rejected.

Look now how great is the faith of a pagan woman! She went out to meet the Lord, she called Him Lord and the Son of David. Without a doubt, she had heard about Christ the Wonderworker, for the rumor about Him spread among the peoples neighboring the Jews. And now she knew that He had come to those parts. And she rushed to Him with joy and great faith. According to the description of the Evangelist Mark, the Lord entered one house, because He did not want anyone to know about Him.

Obviously, by this the Lord wanted to emphasize the faith of the pagans even more. He will not be imposed, but they will seek Him. Moreover, He will hide from the Gentiles, but He will not be able to hide. But he could not hide himself. The great faith of the Canaanite woman found Him. The people He calls do not want to come to Him, while the people who sit in darkness and the shadow of death seek Him, and find Him even when He hides from them.

Note, the woman does not say to Christ, "Have mercy on my daughter," but have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! Her daughter was mad; her daughter is mad; however, the mother prays to the Lord that He would have mercy on her herself. Why? Because in her madness, the daughter does not know anything about herself - she does not feel the horror and anguish that a mother experiences when she is in her right mind. These words at the same time show a great mother's love for her daughter. The mother perceives the misfortune of her child as her own. Whoever would have had mercy on her daughter, would have mercy on her, the unfortunate mother. And in this terrible situation, who could show any mercy to a mother without showing mercy to her suffering daughter? Without a doubt, because of the girl's madness, the whole house, all the relatives and friends of the family are saddened. No doubt their neighbors shun them, and their enemies gloat. The house became empty, like a cemetery. From it you can hear the screams of the possessed woman and her mad laughter. Can a grieving mother think and dream, talk and ask for anything else? Or perhaps she was aware of some sin of hers, with which she associated the misfortune that had happened to her daughter. That is why she cries out: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!"

But He did not answer her a word. It was not the custom of Christ not to answer people's questions and pleas. He even answered Satan, who tempted Him in the wilderness. He was silent only in response to the questions of His unrighteous judges and tormentors: Caiaphas and Pilate. So why doesn't He answer the pleas of this unfortunate mother? That the eyes of those who do not see may be opened, and that they may see what He sees. In order for a woman to show her faith in Christ as vividly as possible, so that all those accompanying the Savior may see and know this.

And His disciples came and asked Him, "Let her go, for she is crying after us." And he answered and said, I have been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. See how wisely the All-Wise Lord did not fulfill the woman's desire immediately and remained silent in response to her request! The disciples are already beginning to feel sorry for the poor supplicant. Let her go means either fulfill her request, or clearly refuse her, so that she does not shout after us. To this petition of His disciples, the Lord replies that He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, that is, to the Jewish people. Why does the Lord answer in this way? Firstly, to show God's faithfulness to His covenant, and secondly, to evoke in the disciples the reflection that the pagans are also children of the Living God, that they too need help and salvation. Through this poor woman with strong faith, the Lord once again gives the disciples the opportunity to rebel against the narrow Jewish notions that God cares only for the Jews and that He is only the God of the Jews. The Lord deliberately speaks as all the Jews did, so that the disciples would reflect and come to the conclusion that the understanding of their people was erroneous; and the more erroneous it is, the more their people degenerate and fall away from God, and reject and despise our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ wishes to teach His disciples not only with the help of words, but also with the help of living events that take place in life. Instead of words, He uses the incident of the Gentile woman to teach the disciples an unforgettable lesson. It was precisely for this reason that He crossed the border of the Jewish country and came to the lands of the Gentiles, in order to teach His followers a lesson through this significant event. But now look at how the woman expresses her unshakable faith in our Lord Jesus Christ:

And she, approaching, bowed down to Him and said: Lord! Help me. She was sure that if Christ did not help her, then no one in the world could help. She undoubtedly ingratiated herself with all the doctors and used all the pagan medicine men, but to no avail. The possessed daughter remained possessed. But behold, the Healer of all torments and diseases! She had heard of Him, she believed in Him before she saw Him. And now, when she saw Him, her faith in His divine power burned more and more strongly in her. He can do what no one can. He can do anything, if He only wills! A woman believes unshakably that He can do this, and she tries to dispose Him so that He can do what is possible only for Him - Him and no one else in the whole vast world. Therefore, when He remained silent in response to her first prayer, and when He did not pay attention to her even after the request of His companions, she ran ahead, fell on her knees before Him, and cried out: Lord! Help me.

And he answered and said, "It is not good to take the children with bread and throw them to the dogs." Terrible words! But the Lord again does not speak from Himself, but expresses Himself in the language of the Jews of His time, who considered themselves to be the children of God, and all other peoples to be dogs. In this way, the Lord wants to evoke in His disciples a decisive protest against the Jewish evil exclusiveness. By this the Lord wants to awaken in the souls of the disciples the thought that He would later express in the eyes of the scribes and Pharisees, saying: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven to men, for you yourselves do not enter in, and those who would enter in you do not admit" (Matthew 23:13). Behold, those who were called children have become like dogs, and those who were considered dogs return and become children of God. But, of course, the Lord wanted to reproach not only the Jews, but also the pagans. The Jews called them dogs more out of malice, but there was a great deal of truth in this name. For the pagans in Tyre and Sidon, as well as in Egypt and other places, long ago gave themselves over to the service of demons, which are dogs, worse than any dogs. Christ does not reproach this woman personally, but reproaches her people and all the pagan nations, who serve demons through idols and other dead things, through various divination and through unclean sacrifices.

Then this extraordinary woman, who surpassed in her faith both the God-chosen Jews and the despised pagans, answered the Lord: "Yes, Lord! but the dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters. So wonderfully does this humble woman answer! She does not deny that she belongs to those peoples who can be called dogs. And she, being better than the Jews, is not ashamed to call the Jews lords. She quickly understood the figurative and figurative meaning of the Savior's words. For great faith brings with it wisdom, great faith also gives the right words: so great is her meekness before the Lord and love for her sick daughter, that even the name of the dog does not offend her! Who among sinful people could really feel himself to be an unclean dog before the Most Pure Lord? Only the one who has a ray of faith in his sinful impurity. I am not worthy that You should come under my roof," said a pagan centurion to the Lord in Capernaum. And now this pagan woman is not ashamed to call herself a dog before the Lord. Until a person feels his sinfulness, he cannot take a single step towards his salvation. Many, many great saints of the Church, being purer and brighter than millions of other people, were not ashamed to call themselves dogs.