Daily Prayer
June 26th, 2010
“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.”
The cure of the centurion’s servant took place at Capernaum on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus made his home after he had left Nazareth. This cure is different from the previous one, i.e. the healing of the leper. Here, a centurion approaches Our Lord, and asks for healing for his servant.
A centurion was a career military officer in the Roman army with control over a hundred soldiers. Roman soldiers, of all people, were hated by the Jews for their oppression, control and ridicule. Yet, this man’s genuine faith amazed Jesus! This hated Gentile’s faith put to shame the stagnant piety of many of the Jewish religious leaders. His faith enables the healing to happen even more powerfully, at a distance from Jesus.
This cure is remarkable for the attention it draws to the faith of one who was not a Jew sharing the faith of Abraham. The centurion’s faith touched some of the depth of Jesus’ interior faith. The centurion compares himself with Jesus – someone living under authority. Jesus was surprised at the parallel drawn by the centurion. He exclaimed: “I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”
Prayer
Lord, increase my faith!
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Just a Thought
Hope
John XXIII, referred to as the ‘caretaker Pope’, realising the widening gap between the Church and the world of his day, wrote: “An old world is disappearing. Another one is being formed, and with this I am trying to conceal some good seed or other that will have its springtime, even if it is somewhat delayed, and comes after I’m dead.”
Thomas Merton writes: “One must not give in to defeatism and despair: just as one must hope for life in a mortal illness which has been declared incurable.”
Even when dark clouds surround us, even when everything appears to be falling apart, we must continue to believe for a better future. Whatever the problem, there is a way forward.
So, my hope is in God alone because I believe in him; this is my faith. It is in him I put my faith and that faith, my belief in God’s love for me and all his creation, is the bedrock in which like an anchor, I put my hope. Together with that hope and faith is my love and fidelity in responding to that God in whom I live and move and have my being. In him I place my hope.
“Hold fast to the hope that lies before us. This we have as an anchor of the soul” (Heb 6:15-19).
