Episode Details

Today, we read in the Gospel of the Mass of the encounter of Jesus with the centurion. A centurion was an officer in the Roman Army in charge of a hundred men. He had a servant he was fond of and who was sick and near death. He sent Jewish friends to ask Jesus for the favor of curing the servant. Jesus goes, but when He was closer to the house, the centurion sent Him a message. It said that he did not presume that Jesus come into his dwelling. The Jews were very careful in being pure and clean. Coming in touch with a Gentile or entering a Gentile's house would get them into trouble with respect to the purity laws. Anyhow, Jesus intended to enter his house to do the cure. But the centurion, knowing of this provision of the purity laws, wanted to avoid this problem for Our Lord. Of course, since He was divine, He had no difficulties in being defiled by a Gentile's house. The centurion's message consisted of expressing his unworthiness in having Jesus in his dwelling. His proposal was for Jesus simply to say the word, and that would suffice to get his favorite servant well. Jesus was amazed at the faith of this soldier. He cured the servant from where He was. We can grow in trusting the Lord by repeating this prayer of the centurion, modified a bit to refer to our cure. “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and I shall be healed."