Monday,
September 17, 2018
24th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
1 Cor 11: 17-26, 33
Gospel: Luke 7:1-10
There was a captain whose servant was very sick and near to death, a man very dear to him. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent some elders of the Jews to persuade him to come and save his servant’s life. The elders came to Jesus and begged him earnestly, saying, “He deserves this of you, for he loves our people and even built a synagogue for us.”
Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the captain sent friends to give this message, “Sir, do not trouble yourself for I am not worthy to welcome you under my roof. You see I didn’t approach you myself. Just give the order and my servant will be healed. For I myself, a junior officer, give orders to my soldiers and I say to this one: ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to the other: ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant: ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
On hearing these words, Jesus was filled with admiration. He turned and said to the people with him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” The people sent by the captain went back to his house; there they found that the servant was well.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Today’s Gospel tells us that the captain had requested some Jewish elders to persuade Jesus to come to his house to heal his servant. The elders did so by giving a favorable recommendation about the captain to Jesus. The recommendation was comprehensive. They said, “He deserves this of you, for he loves our people and even built a synagogue for us.”
The recommendation of the elders is akin to the intercessions of the saints we often avail of in our prayers. God allows the intercession of the saints each time we pray because in this he sees the Church united. The Church is larger than us. Those who are in heaven and those who are in purgatory are also part of the Church. When we pray for dead peoples’ salvation, and when we ask the saints for their intercession, we express our being Church almost to perfection. The saints remind us of our destiny while the dead remind us of that necessary exit to eternity. Devotions to the dead and to the saints define us as pilgrim Church oriented towards our final destiny.
Our journey to that destiny necessarily draws life from faith because no one has come back to this life to tell us that heaven is real. Faith makes us believe like the mi-litary officer who even found it unnecessary for Jesus to appear personally to his house to deliver the favor. He only needed Jesus to say the word, and that was enough for him. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domi-ngo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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