When Jesus entered Capernaum,
a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
"Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully."
This centurion had an extraordinary level of compassion for his servant, sympathizing with his dreadful suffering to the point that he would resort to asking Jesus for help even though he himself was a Gentile.
He said to him, "I will come and cure him."
In this line Jesus actually drew attention to the problem of the divide that would make it awkward for a Jew to visit the home of a Gentile. The Catholic Commentary of Sacred Scripture says of that line that, "it is better translated as an exclamatory question: “Shall I come and cure him?” With the emphatic “I,” it is as if Jesus is saying, “Shall I, a Jew, come to your home?”"¹ Thus Jesus was in a sense testing the faith of the centurion and what the centurion said next was his response to that test.
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.
Perhaps it was in some way not fitting for Jesus to visit him in person. Maybe he really was unworthy, undeserving, in spite of his exulted position in his own society in the world. But be that as it may he perceived that this need not be an obstacle to Jesus himself. Just as the centurion was able to dispatch troops at a word so too, he believed, could Jesus dispatch his healing power to restore his servant.
The power of Jesus was thus able to overcome, not only distance, not only the disparity of social groups, but even ideas of merit or deserving. The centurion's faith was able to recognize that even his own limitations were not an obstacle to the power of Jesus. The normal barriers of society thus crumbled because the compassion and humility of the centurion reached out in faith to Jesus and received by faith what they sought.
"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."
The faith of the centurion thus unlocked a sneak preview of life in the Kingdom, when not only the tribes of Israel, but all nations would be united in one heavenly feast. For everyone in the Kingdom the basis of entrance was precisely the same as it was for the centurion: faith, not deserving. This is why every time we gather together to celebrate that feast in the mass the words of the centurion are memorialized as part of our own prayer, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed".
Our own participation in the heavenly banquet looks forward to a still greater realization, spoken of by Isaiah, when the entire world shall be joined together dwelling in the fullness of peace. Yet Isaiah presents this fact as an invitation, that even here and now we begin to live in that promise.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the LORD!
1) Mitch, Curtis; Sri, Edward. The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture): (A Catholic Bible Commentary on the New Testament by Trusted Catholic Biblical Scholars - CCSS) (p. 126). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. "
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