Notes for  16 August 2026

These words recall the traditional descriptions of sacrifices in the Book of Leviticus, where they are usually called “an aroma pleasing to Yahweh.” The apostle is undoubtedly alluding to the relevant texts of the Torah when he compares his witness to a sacrifice. This is hardly surprising: every sacrifice was always, first and foremost, a form of communion with God that sanctified the person who came to the altar and participated in the sacrificial meal. It was a way for a person to partake of God's presence abiding at the altar. The “effectiveness” of the sacrifice depended on the person's openness and readiness to change and be sanctified.

The same is true of witness. Paul bore witness to the Kingdom while himself being one of its inhabitants and living its life. To bear witness means to carry this life onward and open it to those to whom one testifies. As a person listens to a true witness of Christ, they find themselves, as it were, at the altar, in God's presence, feeling upon themselves the breath of the Kingdom by whose life that witness lives.

And as always in God's presence, the person faces a choice: to accept or reject, to say “yes” or “no” to God. Everything thereafter depends on the answer. For the “aroma,” the “fragrance” of which the apostle speaks contains not only the breath of the Kingdom but also the person's response. If the response is negative, the breath of the Kingdom becomes deadly to that person: it destroys the one who does not want its life. But if a person says “yes” to God, the breath of the Kingdom opens the entire fullness of life to them. It cannot be otherwise with a true witness, for, as the apostle says, he does not peddle the word but carries it in all its fullness. Here it is no longer the person who decides how much of God they need; God comes to the person and takes them wholly to Himself. Or leaves them, if the person does not want this—but wholly so as well.

Today Jesus tells a remarkable parable showing that there is no need to speculate about how the Lord will treat us at the end of days. We need only look at how we treated people during our life: that is how the Lord will treat us. The servant owed his master ten thousand talents, an immense sum. Some scholars believe that, converted into modern money, it would amount to billions of dollars. Yet the king does even more than he is asked: he does not merely grant a delay, but forgives the debt. Such is the greatness of God's mercy.

But the Lord is not only merciful; He is also just. Many find it strange that Jesus chose this particular parable to illustrate the need to forgive seventy times seven, since the king forgave only once. Those who reason this way miss its central point: we must strive to resemble the Lord in mercy, but while trusting in God's mercy, we must not forget God's justice.

Christ's initial unwillingness not merely to heal the girl but even simply to answer her mother seems strange. We have grown accustomed to the fact that up to this point He has refused healing to no one and has cared for everyone, and suddenly He reacts this way merely because it was a pagan woman who asked Him.

Today we are inclined to regard anyone's belonging to the pagan world neutrally, and when ordinary human relations are concerned, that is how it should be. But here the question is deliverance from negative spiritual influences that had caused the girl's possession. Yet in their everyday religious practice, pagans constantly appealed to lower spiritual powers. We may recall Christ's words about what happens when demons that have been cast out return to an unoccupied soul, for pagans who do not worship the God of Israel may well let them back in. In such circumstances, casting out unclean spirits is pointless.

But the pagan woman's humble request for crumbs speaks of the strength of a mother's love overcoming deep-rooted prejudices. After her humble admission, which essentially testifies that she is approaching faith, Jesus meets her halfway. Even the few crumbs of the Canaanite woman's faith proved sufficient for her daughter to receive not crumbs from the table at all, but the gift in its fullness.