Healed Souls

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”  He said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven, but the children of the Kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.” And at that very hour his servant was healed. 

Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him. When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases. (Matthew 8:5-17)

With this Gospel reading Matthew demeaned the Jewish people; that is, they did not believe Jesus was the Messiah – the Christ.  Therefore, Matthew had Jesus (a Jew) say “the children of the Kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  These children were the Jewish people who Jesus, according to Matthew, said, “in no one in Israel have I found such faith.”  This contrasted with a Gentile – the Roman centurion to whom Jesus said, “You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.” And at that very hour his servant was healed.   

We Gentiles now say during Mass: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”  We say this during Communion just after the priest says: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.  Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”  

This proclamation seems related to Isaiah’s statement: “He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.”  We are healed like Peter’s mother-in-law whose fever left her when Jesus took her hand.  When we stick out our hands to receive the Eucharist, we too are healed.  Our infirmities are taken away through our faith.

Deacon David Pierce