Mt 8: 5-11
When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.
For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Healed, Saved, and Made Whole
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus tells us that our faith will save us, heal us, make us whole again through his encounters with the hemorrhaging woman, the synagogue official’s daughter, the blind, the deaf, the unclean. We also hear of the ways in which the faith of others saves or heals us by bringing us closer to Jesus: the paralytic’s friends who lowered him through the roof, or in today’s Gospel, the centurion who intercedes on behalf of his sick and suffering servant.
Faith isn’t about our belief that Jesus can save us, heal us, or make us whole. Faith is when we know that he will. Such profound faith, the faith of the centurion that “amazes” Jesus, necessitates that we surrender ourselves, wholly and without reservation, surrendering all that we are, all that we have, and all that we believe to the knowledge that Jesus will save us, heal us, and make us whole again.
In what ways are you in need of healing, saving, or being made whole? What might you need to surrender?
—Jackie Schulte is the Dean of Faculty Formation at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, Nebraska.
Prayer
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
—Suscipe prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola