Restricting Mercy:
The Canaanite Woman and Immigrants with Criminal Convictions
With two weeks left in office, former Mayor Michael Nutter rolled back key parts of Philadelphia’s local anti- deportation policy, now referred to as a Sanctuary policy. This policy, won by a coalition of groups around the city in April 2014, set a new precedent in the country as it barred city police from holding any immigrants to turn over to ICE, whether they were in custody for a traffic violation or murder. As Nutter reversed his own policy, he played his cards pretty slick – he said they were just sharing information for the worst of the worst: the murderers, drug traffickers, terrorists. Even though this was a cover for his political advancement, this is not a new line. When President Obama announced his Administrative Relief, he coined the phrase “Families, not Felons,” indicating he wanted to provide relief to ‘good’ immigrants, but ‘bad’ immigrants had no place here and would be swiftly deported.
To fight this policy shift in Philadelphia, New Sanctuary Movement (NSM) launched an intense campaign culminating in civil disobedience at City Hall, blocking doors of City Hall to make sure we keep the doors open to all in our city. We successfully delayed Nutter’s decision for seven weeks and Mayor Kenney changed the policy back on his first day. However, it is proof that despite policy victories that protected all people, regardless of criminal history, we still need a paradigm shift in this country. There is broad support for ending deportation of undocumented immigrants, but still a lot of questions of why we should not deport immigrants who have been convicted of a crime.
In the Judeo-Christian texts, there are some obvious stories about forgiveness. Moses killed a man and God still chose him to liberate the Israelites (Obama would have deported him under his “Families, not Felons” plan). Jesus intervenes in the stoning of a woman accused of adultery. But I think the issue is deeper than forgiveness. There is an assumption on a structural level and buried deep down in us that those who have committed a crime are the ‘other,’ they are separate or different from us. I believe it leads us to harden our hearts, to support policies that say some people are undeserving of forgiveness or a second chance or to be welcomed back into the community.
In John’s Gospel, we see this theme of ‘otherness’ played out in the interaction between the Canaanite woman and Jesus.
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
The visuals are important here. The woman approaches Jesus and his disciples and faces a wall of men. It is a physical circle around Jesus keeping her out, and as a Gentile woman, she would have been seen as ‘other’ many times over: as a woman and as a Gentile. She approaches the un-approachable with a persistent cry for
mercy. Mercy is compassion or forgiveness toward someone who it is within one’s power to punish or harm. Pope
Francis deepens the definition as he explains God’s mercy is “a gift that is so overabundant it may even seem
unfair in our eyes. But the nature of God’s mercy is its excess; it balances nothing, it is required by nothing, it is not deserved. It is the divine attitude that embraces.” So the Canaanite woman pits the abundance of mercy against the restrictive cultural norms of exclusion.
Jesus breaks down these barriers all the time, but in this scene Jesus follows the cultural norms of his day and he ignores her. Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” The disciples call him to follow the way of the world, and he does as he tells her “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” I don’t know what was going on with Jesus–maybe he was really tired, but his response shows how engrained the division is between men and women, Jews and Gentiles. It also shows the humanness of Jesus, as he battles with the same things we do.
However, she is not deterred, as the woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. She forces Jesus to see her, and physically puts her body on top of this line of ‘other,’ of who is in and who is out. She pushes in on the circle around the men, as she holds this contrast of kneeling and mercy while being very confrontational. This is classic nonviolent action.
He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Jesus is harsh. In fact this is the rudest we see him in the Gospels. But she stays kneeling, blocking his path, and directly challenges him. The confrontation focuses on whether the circle of exclusion is right or wrong. Whether or not the ‘other’ is worthy of compassion, whether the ‘other’ should be considered as part of the circle.
Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. There are three healings or transformations here. The first is Jesus. There isn’t much in the text, but she obviously made quite an impact on him. By putting her body in the way, she has made him see her - not just the backs of the heads of his disciples as they try to send her away, or as some woman on the outside of his group. Jesus sees her great faith, and maybe he sees this is not limited to Israelites. She has made him see the circle that keeps her out, and maybe he digs deep and sees the deep human assumptions he has in his own heart. Perhaps he understands that God’s mercy is bigger than people’s doctrines. Ultimately, he chooses to act with love and opens his heart. I love the humanity of Jesus in this moment, the person that can be changed, that can be touched, that must go through the very human process of being wrong, of changing a hardened heart, and then changing behavior.
The second is the woman’s daughter, and the third transformation is on the societal level. In this confrontation between mercy and exclusion, mercy wins out. The woman’s action has ushered in mercy and radical inclusion as she breaks open the circle that once was closed. She has not just opened it for her daughter, but for all women and Gentiles.
Today, we still have a lot of circles that keep people and mercy out. We have a lot to learn from both the Canaanite woman and Jesus, especially those of us that have the privilege to be within the many circles. Immigrants and people with criminal records are two groups that are the ‘other.’ When combined, they are a few circles out. Like the disciples and even Jesus, many of us see that line as reasonable. People who have commit- ted a crime are bad people, and do not deserve to stay in this country, nor deserve to be defended in a campaign for immigrant justice. Jesus’ initial response shows us how entrenched these biases can be. The beauty of this passage is that Jesus’ response allows us to see how harsh these cultural exclusions can be.
Luckily, the steps of Jesus’ transformation offer us a map for how we can change. First, we need to see people. People in both the immigrant and criminal justice movements are putting their bodies on the line, asking us to choose between mercy and exclusion. If we are to follow Jesus we need to see the sacred thread that binds us all. Then we need to dig deep, and allow ourselves to be challenged and examine the deep assumptions we have about them, and perhaps admit we do see them as ‘other.’ And then we must act. We need to open our hearts, ready to welcome immigrants with criminal convictions back into our communities as the children of God that they are. This is the inner work we all have the responsibility to do, and what better time to do it than during Pope Francis’ year of mercy.
Then we need to be allies to the Canaanite woman, and stand in solidarity with the people who are the ‘others’ of today. When both Republicans and Democrats actively confine mercy with a tiny circle, we need to fight policy and structural limits to mercy. With that blend of faith, compassion and blunt confrontation, the Canaanite woman teaches us how to put our bodies on the line in order to burst open the circles of exclusion. For example, at New Sanctuary Movement, we organize against the “Families, not Felons” approach that prioritizes those with a criminal record for deportation. We fight the Priorities Enforcement Program, the new Secure Communities that tries to re-market collaboration with local law enforcement. When someone is in deportation proceedings, whether or not they have a criminal record, we stand in solidarity with them through our Accompaniment Program, which pairs ally congregations with them to build relationships, go to court as a group, and if desired, launch public campaigns to stop their deportation.
When we live out the answer to this story’s question: that God’s mercy cannot be confined to the circles we draw, we find the promise of healing. Like the daughter of the Canaanite woman, this is how we will be healed of the demons that cause so much suffering. As Fr. Greg Boyle so beautifully said, we must “imagine a circle of compassion, then we imagine nobody's standing outside that circle.” Let us actively push those circles.
Peter Pedemonti,
Director
http://www.sanctuaryphiladelphia.org/
