Numbers 13:1-2, 25 - 14:1, 26-29, 34-35 / Matthew 15:21-28
When a promise is kept and delivered, it is an expression of the character and integrity of the person who made the promise.
But on the other hand, if the promise is not kept or broken, it says so much about what the person thinks of making promises.
In the 1st reading, we heard that God told Moses to send a reconnaissance team to the land of Canaan which He was giving to the sons of Israel.
This reconnaissance team was made up of the leaders of each tribe of Israel. The team was tasked to give a report of the land that God had promised to give to Israel after 40 days of reconnaissance.
When they came back, they showed the people the produce of the land and indeed it was a good and fertile land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
But they also said that the people in that land were a powerful people, that they were no match against them, and they began to disparage the land.
As the people began to raise their voices and cry aloud and wail in despair, they also forgot that it was a land that the Lord had promised them.
They forgot that what the Lord had promised, He will deliver. On the contrary, it was the people who didn't want to believe in the promises God made to them. God did not break His promise; rather it was the people who broke faith in God.
In the gospel, it was a Canaanite woman who came before Jesus, a woman from the land that God had promised to His people.
She had no promises to rely on. In fact the promises were somewhat against her people. But she had faith in Jesus that God can do more than He promised.
May we have that faith of the Canaanite woman that God will not only keep His promise but He will have great things in store for those who believe and trust in Him