June 27, 2015 Saturday
12th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading:
Gen 18: 1-15
Gospel: Matthew 8:5-17
When Jesus entered Capernaum, an army captain approached him to ask his help, “Sir, my servant lies sick at home. He is paralyzed and suffers terribly.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
The captain answered, “I am not worthy to have you under my roof. Just give an order and my boy will be healed. For I myself, a junior officer, give orders to my soldiers. And if I say to one: ‘Go,’ he goes, and if I say to another: ‘Come,’ he comes, and to my servant: ‘Do this,’ he does it.”
When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those who were following him, “I tell you, I have not found such faith in Israel. I say to you, many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven; but the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown out into the darkness; there they will wail and grind their teeth.”
Then Jesus said to the captain, “Go home now. As you believed, so let it be.” And at that moment his servant was healed.
Jesus went to Peter’s house and found Peter’s mother-in-law in bed with fever. He took her by the hand and the fever left her; she got up and began to wait on him. Towards evening they brought to Jesus many possessed by evil spirits, and with a word he drove out the spirits. He also healed all who were sick. In doing this he fulfilled what was said by the prophet Isaiah: He bore our infirmities and took on himself our diseases.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Like every Gentile in Jesus’ time the army captain was frowned upon by the Jews as having no part in God’s salvation. But he made a great display of faith impressive enough to catch the attention of Jesus. In that great display of faith the army captain used the language of his profession. He must have been a man of integrity habitually harmonizing his lifestyle with what he believed.
Since as an army captain manning hundred soldiers for Herod Antipas he knew the power of an official command, he concluded that by mere command Jesus could heal his servant. This amounted to recognizing Jesus as an authority in the spiritual realm.
He stooped down before him and said, “I am not worthy to have you under my roof”.
The captain’s story embarrasses us. If the way we practice our faith cannot even get closer to how pagans exercise what they believe, justice won’t be at our side at the end of time. Let’s take it from Jesus who said: “I say to you…, the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown out into the darkness; there they will wail and grind their teeth.” – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM., MAPM. (dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org).
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