Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Jesus treats the Canaanite woman in a surprising way. Some confused interpreters even think that he's racist. They say that Jesus was limited by the culture in which he grew up, and so he shared the Jew's hatred of foreigners. But that is not true at all, just consider how he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus is God, he is wisdom itself, and racism is neither divine nor wise. We must look for a deeper explanation. Jesus loves that woman so much that he died for her on the cross. For he did not die just for the Jews, but for everyone who truly wants to be saved by his death, that is, for everyone who will cooperate with his grace. And here we have a clue. He does not hate that woman, he loves her so much that he's not content to give her only temporal benefits. He wants to give her heaven, even if he has to make her suffer a little on earth. The Latin collect speaks of God's plan for us. Oh God, we're prepared for those who love you, good things which no eye can see. When the translator says, no eye, he means no bodily eye. For love too is an eye, as Richard of St. Victor said, and with the eye of charity we will be able to see God. So salvation is equivalent to having charity. But that woman, like all her people, has a big problem in this regard. She is a Canaanite, a pagan, she worships gods who are not truly gods, but demons. That they are demons is clear from the kind of worship they demand, which included human sacrifice and ritual prostitution. That kind of religion destroys charity instead of infusing it. It cannot give eternal life. But now a demon is tormenting this poor woman's little daughter, and that's too much for her. She may be a pagan, but she's also a mother. She cries out, have pity on me, Lord. We might expect her to say, have pity on my daughter, but instead she says, have pity on me. As if to say, her torment is my torment, for I would rather be tormented in her place than see her like this. She cries out for help, but the Lord does not say a single word to her in reply. She's asking for a lot. Jesus might say to her, so, you worship demons, and when things go bad, you want the true God to get you out of your problems. Not right away. She must first do something to earn it, something that will serve for her salvation.
It would not be true love on Jesus' part simply to deliver the daughter from the demon and send the woman on her way. If they continue doing the evil things that their false religion teaches, mother and daughter will wind up in hell, and that is the real torment from which they need to be saved. The woman already showed some faith by crying out, have pity on me, Lord, Son of David. The Son of David is the Messiah, so even though this woman is not a Jew, she recognizes what the Sadducees and the Pharisees refuse to recognize. But Jesus is waiting for more than that faith, and the woman continues to insist. When he's outside, she follows him around shouting for help. When he's welcomed into a house, she comes in uninvited and continues to beg for help. She's annoying the disciples who continue or who try to have Jesus send her away. If you won't say anything else to her, at least tell her to go away so that we can have some peace. But Jesus continues to refuse to speak to her. I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Although he came for the salvation of the world, he must first fulfill the promise to Israel by ministering to them. Then the Jews are to preach to the rest of the world, at least in the person of the apostles and their collaborators. Finally, the woman knelt in homage or adoration before Jesus and said, Lord, help me. 
But Jesus replied harshly, it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs. The Jews called the pagans dogs, perhaps because idol worship reduced them to the level of beasts. The faithfulness of the patriarchs had merited a covenant with God in force of which they were like sons. But this woman's ancestors, on the other hand, deserved for their abominations only punishment. Despite the harshness, the woman is not discouraged. Jesus knew what happened. And she replies, please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.
Her humility, great faith and perseverance, she deserves to receive the grace she asks for. And her little daughter was instantly delivered from the demon. All of this serves to ground the woman firmly in faith. For dwelling among pagans, she will need a very strong faith to not abandon Christ and return to idols. She will need to exercise perseverance to save herself and her family. Humility will also be important. She will be blamed for abandoning the pagan religion of her ancestors and counted impious for her piety. She will have to endure many insults. It seems that God permitted a demon to torment the little girl in order to save the whole family. 
Even today, the experience of having to go to an exorcist frequently brings a whole family to the practice of the faith. Through this unpleasant experience, they realize that the things that we see and touch are not all that is real. There are also spiritual forces engaged in a relentless struggle to bring souls to heaven or to hell. God is willing to allow evils if they serve for our salvation.
So he permits evils from which he can derive a greater good. Sometimes God seems deaf because he wants our perseverance, because we need to grow in faith or humility like the woman in today's Gospel. St. John Chrysostom teaches, whether we have our requests granted or not, let us persist in asking and render thanks not only when we gain what we ask, but also when we fail to. Failure to gain, you see, when that is what God wants, is not worse than succeeding, for we do not know what is to our advantage in this regard the way he does. Let us also invoke our Blessed Mother so that we may obtain by her merits the graces that we need. There is something else to recognize or to notice in the Canaanite woman's words to Jesus. She says, even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.
It seems to me that these words are not just full of humility and great faith, but even inspired. And so that's an interesting thing, because it means that even as God seemed to be silent, he was inspiring her with the answer that she had to give. These words seem inspired to me because they contain a prophecy of the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews, and of the fact that this would benefit the pagans. Dogs eat leftovers, or at least they used to eat leftovers, and when the Jewish people rejected the Messiah, they left him to our pagan ancestors. As St. Paul said, this rejection is the reconciliation of the world. Thus the house of God became a house of prayer for all peoples, fulfilling the prophecy in the first reading. Thus our sacrifices became acceptable, because we unite them to the one sacrifice acceptable to God, the Holy Eucharist.
But if Israel was cast off for rejecting the Messiah, it must also one day be reconciled. Since the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable, this people chosen by God long ago must eventually receive the fulfillment of the old covenant in the new. In every century there are individual Jews and groups of Jews that convert, but their mass conversion of the people will be towards the end of the world, as St. Paul says elsewhere. And when that happens, it will be of enormous benefit to the whole world, for if the rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Then all nations will praise God, for all will be children of Mary.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.