The encounter between Jesus and the woman of Tyre and Sidon marks a dramatic shift in his ministry. When this pagan woman was begging for help Jesus answered: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She pushes him to look at things from her perspective and his understanding of his circle of care expands. We can entitle this scene “Canaanite lives matter.” What that movement asks of us is similar to what Jesus learned from the woman — that we have to look at things from the point of view of others, particularly those who are on the “margins” of society as Pope Francis puts it. We must pay attention to the experiences of those who don’t look like us.
