16 September 2013 - to receive you

16 September 2013 - to receive you

First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers,
petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone,

There are untold blessings waiting to be unleashed if we turn to God and ask for them.  There are all kinds of problems in the world right now.  Syria is just the most prominent.  We see the power of prayer when Pope Francis calls us to pray to prevent war and incidental statements by government figures cascade and violence may actually be averted.  Let us take heart from this and redouble our efforts to lift up our Church, our nation, and our families and friends to God.

They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying,
“He deserves to have you do this for him,
for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.”

We probably know better than to come before the LORD saying, "I deserve to have you do this for me"  But when we are lifting up friends who inspire us with their walk of holiness we may be more presumptuous.  Yet none of us deserve that love by which Jesus "gave himself as ransom for all."

The centurion knows this.  He does not plead his worth when he comes before Jesus asking for his slave to be healed.

“Lord, do not trouble yourself,
for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.

And for this humility and conviction Jesus praises him.

“I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

Now his words are immortalized in the mass of the Roman rite.  We all profess them together before we approach Jesus in the eucharist.  We all confess are absolute unworthiness of the great gift he chooses to give.

The centurion isn't ultimately asking for something for himself.  He is asking for something for his slave.  But even so he doesn't try to talk to Jesus about deserving anything.  Instead, he confesses his belief that Jesus has the absolute power to do what he asks.  In that confession is an implicit trust in the love that will do what it can do.

We may not believe in the power of prayer to actually make a difference in any significant way.  We may believe that prayer is largely something we do to affect our subjective state or maybe the subjective state of others.   But let us be assured that it can make a difference writ large in the world.  The concrete facts of reality are no match for prayer and the power of God.

Let us come before him with empty hands upraised.  We do not plead our merits.  Are merits are all impure and tarnished in his site.  Let us plead his own power and goodness.  He is the "one mediator" and he has proven his love for us.  

Hear the sound of my pleading, when I cry to you,
lifting up my hands toward your holy shrine.

For he truly is "the strength of his people, the saving refuge of his anointed."