29th of November

Gospel text

(Mt 8:5-11):

 When he 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 person 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.”

The Application

As I read this gospel, I would like to share with you three points that can help us to live this gospel in a concrete way.

Self-knowledge: This centurion has become aware of his power, of the power of his word, but also of his inability to heal his servant. Faced with this inability, he seeks the source and discovers in Jesus the divine power that can save and heal his servant.  

Faith: Faith is a gift from God, a gift that God has already put in our hearts. All we have to do is apply it in our daily lives. Faith helps us to discover the divine presence in our daily lives and to trust in the God who loves us. This centurion expresses his faith before Jesus, who is visible only to divine eyes. Jesus reveals the depth of his faith and invites us to imitate him.

His humility and humanity: Humility is a fruit of faith. Like Jesus who said to his Father, "Thy will be done", we are all called to seek the divine will and to do it. Our humility is therefore not necessarily a lowering of our humanity, but a fulfilment of the purpose of that humanity. In this way, we allow God to act in us, and through this divine action we praise God, in word and deed. Jesus does not only praise his faith, but also his humanity. The more human we become, in our humanity, to the man of the day, we will be like the Godhead. 

Action of the day: Know thyself, because everything begins in you, not outside, including the divine call.

“I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

Fr. Joaquim MESEGUER García

(Rubí, Barcelona, Spain)

Today, Capernaum is our city and our village, where there are sick people, some we know, others anonymous, often forgotten because of the hectic rhythm of life that we lead. Loaded with work, we rush about non-stop without thinking of those who, due to their illness or for whatever other circumstance, remain marginalised from the frenetic activity of our world. However, Jesus told us: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Mt 25:40). The great thinker Blaise Pascal follows this idea when he says “in his believers, Jesus finds himself in the agony of Gethsemane until the end of time”.

The centurion of Capernaum does not forget about his servant who is ill in bed, because he loves him. In spite of being more powerful and having more authority than his servant, the centurion is grateful to him because of all his years of help and appreciates him very much. Because of that, he approaches Jesus, and in the Saviour's presence, manages to make an extraordinary confession of faith, seen in the liturgy of the Eucharist: “I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed” (Mt 8:8). This confession is based on hope; it comes from the centurion's faith in the Lord and, at the same time, from his feeling of lack personal worthiness, which makes him aware of his own neediness.

We can only approach Jesus with a humble attitude, like that of the centurion. That way we can live the hope of Advent: the hope of salvation and life, of reconciliation and peace. Only he, who acknowledges his poverty and realizes that the meaning of life is not to be found in himself, but in God, in turning his life over to Him, can really have hope. Let's approach Christ confidently, and, at the same time, make the centurion's prayer our own.