Saturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time (June 30, 2018): Under my roof? (Why do we quote the centurion?)

Thứ Sáu, 29-06-2018 | 15:00:59

Today’s Readings:

Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19
Psalm 74:1b-7, 20-21
Matthew 8:5-17
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/063018.cfm

USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/18_06_30.mp3


A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.

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.


Good News Reflection: Under my roof? (Why do we quote the centurion?)

A few years ago, we had to learn new words 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.” How is that better than praying, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you…”?

I must admit, this was the hardest change in the Mass for me to accept. My daughter, Tammy, was producing for Good News Ministries a video about the Mass for parish workshops, Take, Eat, and Drink, to help people prepare for the changes, and I couldn’t find any benefit for this particular change. So I prayed about it.

Here’s what came to me:

By the time we reach this moment in the liturgy, if we’ve consciously and actively participated in the previous parts of the Mass, we’ve gone through a process of restoring our unity to Christ. We’ve acknowledged our need, and Christ has responded with grace. However, this experience is incomplete if we intend it only for our own benefit.

Mass ends with a final blessing followed by a hymn that the community sings as a glorious pronouncement of our unity with each other and with God. In the blessing, the priest (or deacon) can choose from four options; two of them are a direct command to GO and be the Jesus we have received in the Eucharist: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.” Or: “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”

The first and foremost place where we go is into our homes. From there, we go out to our workplaces, schools, stores, recreational activities, etc. Wherever we encounter others, we are supposed to spread the presence of Christ.

To be successful at this, just prior to receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, we make one final prayer for help.

It’s not enough to say, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.” He heals. We receive. We are done. We go home and start arguing with the spouse or we watch an immoral television show or we complain about the neighbor who is too ill to mow his lawn.

The Catholic who truly participates in Mass wants to take Jesus home. However, we are not worthy of such an honor, since we often behave embarrassingly unlike Christ in our homes. So we acknowledge this in our final prayer before getting into the communion line – “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof” — and we ask Jesus to heal our souls so that we can take him home with us and keep his presence alive in our homes.

Of course Jesus says the word of healing that gives us our soul unity with his Spirit: “Yes!”

And then what? We go home with a holy soul. We enter under our roofs with Jesus. And with the help of the Holy Spirit, we grow stronger in maintaining that holiness despite temptations and hardships and the unChrist-like ways that others treat us.

And when this help weakens and we start losing our unity with Christ? We go back to Mass and start the process of healing all over again.

The video, Take, Eat and Drink: Drawing Deeper Faith through Understanding the Mass, was too good to throw away. We recently updated it and repackaged it in 17 short segments for private use and for catechists to use in adult and youth faith formation classes, including RCIA. Come see it! studios.gnm.org/take-eat-drink

© 2018 by Terry A. Modica

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