The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today proclaim that God provides refuge and healing to all people.
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| Refuge and healing |
The reading from the Prophet Isaiah describes the Future Glory of the Survivors in Zion after Jerusalem is purified.
* [4:2–6] Usually judged a later addition to the oracles of Isaiah. It relieves the threatening tone of the surrounding chaps. 3 and 5.1
Psalm 122 is a song of praise and prayer for Jerusalem.
* [Psalm 122] A song of Zion, sung by pilgrims obeying the law to visit Jerusalem three times on a journey. The singer anticipates joining the procession into the city (Ps 122:1–3). Jerusalem is a place of encounter, where the people praise God (Ps 122:4) and hear the divine justice mediated by the king (Ps 122:5). The very buildings bespeak God’s power (cf. Ps 48:13–15). May the grace of this place transform the people’s lives (Ps 122:6–9)!2
Jesus heals a centurion’s servant in the Gospel of Matthew.
* [8:5–13] This story comes from Q (see Lk 7:1–10) and is also reflected in Jn 4:46–54. The similarity between the Q story and the Johannine is due to a common oral tradition, not to a common literary source. As in the later story of the daughter of the Canaanite woman (Mt 15:21–28) Jesus here breaks with his usual procedure of ministering only to Israelites and anticipates the mission to the Gentiles.3
Michael Kavan comments Jesus invites those who are humble and strong in faith to recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.
Matthew’s reading provides many lessons. First, it reminds us to refocus first, from me to those in need - much like the centurion cared for his servant, and second, from me to Him. In a society plagued with narcissism it reminds us of the importance of humility; knowing that from humility and a dependence on the Lord comes great faith and the Kingdom of God. Seems odd, but when was the last time you yearned to model after a centurion?4
Don Schwager quotes “Welcoming the Lord Jesus with expectant faith and humility,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"When the Lord promised to go to the centurion's house to heal his servant, the centurion answered, 'Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.' By viewing himself as unworthy, he showed himself worthy for Christ to come not merely into his house but also into his heart. He would not have said this with such great faith and humility if he had not already welcomed in his heart the One who came into his house. It would have been no great joy for the Lord Jesus to enter into his house and not to enter his heart. For the Master of humility both by word and example sat down also in the house of a certain proud Pharisee, Simon, and though he sat down in his house, there was no place in his heart. For in his heart the Son of Man could not lay his head" (Matthew 8:20). (excerpt from SERMON 62.1)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 8:5-11 shares the heart of the good news that Jesus was proclaiming: no one was excluded from God’s guest list.
Not that Roman soldier, not any other Roman, not any Greek or anyone else alive at the time. And the same holds true today: not the nephew who says he’s an atheist, not the neighbor who has struggled all his life with addiction, not the coworker enmeshed in New Age practices. Everyone is on the list. Everyone is invited.6
Friar Jude Winkler describes the place of benediction that Isaiah sees for Jerusalem. The Centurion with great faith may have been a pagan from one of the client states of Rome. Friar Jude notes the great faith of the Gentile in a Gospel addressed to an audience of Jews and Jewish Christians.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that periods of seemingly fruitless darkness may in fact highlight all the ways we rob ourselves of wisdom by clinging to the light. Who grows by only looking on the bright side of things? It is only when we lose our certainties that will we be able to deconstruct our false images of God to discover the Absolute Reality beneath all our egoic fantasies and fears. United Church of Christ pastor and Living School “sendee” Mark Longhurst describes how both light and dark are essential for transformation.
In spirituality . . . we elevate the light over the darkness and praise the light and expel the darkness. Light conquers the darkness, the darkness will not overcome the light, John’s Gospel says [1:5]. . . . The more Genesis works its wisdom on me, though, the more light and darkness seem bound up together. . . . God separates light from darkness, but they both need each other, and they both bear the breath of God. This, too, I think, is the truth of our lives. The light and the darkness are bound up with one another. Spiritual transformation does not happen only on the light level. We have to do the inner work of facing the shadow, or repressed realities, of who we are, both the beautiful and the bad. Some of our most painful experiences in life—whether death, divorce, or disease—often turn out to create a capacity in us for greater love. What we think is light shows up in what we think is darkness—and vice versa. [1]7
We are sometimes challenged by events to deconstruct our false images of God that too often restricts His Love to a favoured few missing the unconditional invitation to a relationship with the Divine that does not depend on our worthiness.
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