No matter how terrible our lives may be, and our lives have been quite terrible, and no matter how far we fall, and we have fallen all the way to rock bottom by this point, and no matter what disaster overtakes us, and there are too many to count, we have one enormous knowledge and consolation, which is a heavenly revelation that overtakes us; that of all the terrible things that can happen to a human being, the worst is when we are in pain and despair and have nowhere to express them. It’s like walking around with a gun to our heads or a cattle prod pressed against our backs.

So we are encouraged today to have faith like the Canaanite mother. To accept the fact that a new identity is forged for us by God’s charity. The example of the Canaanite woman reveals this to us, that our connection to our Savior is direct, and that he will not only listen to us express our pain and despair, but he will do something with them beyond what we believe is reasonable or even possible. He will remove them from us.