Gospel
When Jesus entered Capernaum,
a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”
He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”
The centurion said in reply,
“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my servant will be healed.
For I too am a man subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;
and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes;
and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,
“Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,
and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven,
but the children of the Kingdom
will be driven out into the outer darkness,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
And Jesus said to the centurion,
“You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.”
And at that very hour his servant was healed. Jesus entered the house of Peter,
and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.
He touched her hand, the fever left her,
and she rose and waited on him. When it was evening, they brought him many
who were possessed by demons,
and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick,
to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.
Here we find the profession we make before receiving the Eucharist.
Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my soul will be healed.
Only changing “servant” for “soul,” we present ourselves with faith in his ability to heal us as we come forward as humble children of God. To receive his true body and blood, human and divine.
This soldier who understood authority framed his whole world around that understanding. And he expected the command of one in authority to always be obeyed.
So, when he found Jesus, he must have been convinced that this rabbi also had the authority over sickness and health. He did not hesitate so we know that once he understood whose authority Jesus possessed, his logical mind of a lifelong soldier could see no other result, but that his authority would be absolute and noone or nothing subject to it could refuse it.
We seek that conviction too don’t we? As followers we are called to give up all our doubts or notions otherwise. That is what Jesus has always asked of us.
I can be a devoted member of the body but without that conviction of faith I will not receive healing or graces. It is the final step in spiritual growth. To approach Jesus convinced his authority is greater than anyone or anything in our world.
For once we truly believe that as the centurion did, our own profession,
Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my soul will be healed, becomes something different. Not just a communal prayer but a trust in him alone. A giving up of doubts and troubles and stresses. An acknowledgement in our mind and heart that we have complete faith that he is present to us and is working all things for our good.
How are we doing today?
Can we let go of anxiety and stress and doubt and give it all to him?
This Sunday bring your suffering and doubts to Jesus Christ and let go of them. Stop holding onto misguided ideas that we are in charge but give our will to Jesus Christ and invite him once again into our hearts and under our roof so he can reside with us and heal us and guide us in his way of living. It is said that fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly. It is born in them. They can’t help it. But as children of God we were born to love God and follow his path. Our nature is to be in communion with the God who created us.
Fish don’t do well out of water. Birds don’t do well underwater.
And children of God don’t do very well when they do not do the will of the Father. For they are trying to live outside their nature.
Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly and children of God gotta shine the light of Christ and walk forward knowing he is at our core. Our inner most nature is as Christians leading the life Jesus gave us as children on our way home.
Deacon Tony Pynes 
Leave a comment