(Audio)
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.
We say these words at mass to remind us that no one ever deserves to receive the Eucharist. It is a gift we could never deserve. Indeed, from the very fact of our creation we are already so indebted to the creator as to never deserve anything from him. Yet our lack of deserving doesn't slow Jesus down. In fact, it only seems to encourage him. He wants to meet us in our paralysis and our suffering and give us his mercy. It is he that stands at our door and knocks and not the other way around (see Revelation 3:20).
Our sense of unworthiness come become a problem if we make it an obstacle to Jesus. We may not be worthy to receive him, but we know that his word is so powerful that he can heal us anyway.
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.”
Jesus comes to us and offers us healing just as he does for the servant of the centurion. To simply take this for granted as something owed to us will actually cause us to miss the opportunity. We are meant to realize that the offer of healing is both great and surprising. We are given the opportunity to respond in faith.
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.
Most of us try to bring Jesus into houses built on selfishness and pride. We don't even want to rearrange the furniture to make him comfortable. We insist that he stand where he can find room and do his healing work from there. The centurion on the other hand recognizes that his house isn't fit for Jesus. And neither is the soul of anyone worthy of Jesus. But the word of Jesus has such power that it can reach even inside of such places, places we could not renovate on our own, and bring healing.
“You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.”
And at that very hour his servant was healed.
Jesus does want to dwell in our hearts through faith (see Ephesians 3:17). As we realize his greatness and our smallness we come to understand that we can do nothing to prepare that place for him until we first welcome his healing word. Even the temple of the Old Testament could only be based on the plans revealed by God himself. How much more do we need his word if we are to be temples of his Holy Spirit.
There is no cause for sadness, no cause to despair that Jesus will leave our servant to suffer. Deserving has nothing to do with our right to receive. The motivation of the Sacred Heart is always mercy. He created us so that we could partake in the goodness of his own being. He is more than willing to make us new creations so that we don't miss out through human weakness and failings.
We can and should cry out in our need, like the author of Lamentations:
Pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord;
The particular passage we see seems depressing, but the author himself was ultimately motivated by hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness (see Lamentations 3:22-23).
These are the mercies the word of Jesus can bring to us, that can heal our soul, and make of us dwelling places fit for the LORD until we in turn come to dwell with him at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven. There is no house so out of order, no disease so dire, not demon too strong, that the healing touch of Jesus cannot heal and overcome them all.
He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.
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