The Word of Healing

 The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to retrieve from our lamentation over our losses the call to be a word of hope to fellow travelers both grand and little.

Healing and Hope

The Reading from the Book of Lamentations presents The Lord’s Wrath and Zion’s Ruin.

* [2:11] My eyes are spent with tears, my stomach churns: the poet appropriates the emotional language used by Zion in 1:16 and 1:20 to express a progressively stronger commitment to her cause. After describing the systematic dismantling of the city in vv. 5–9, the poet turns to the plight of the inhabitants in vv. 10–12. It is the description of children dying in the streets that finally brings about the poet’s emotional breakdown, even as it did for Zion in 1:16.

* [2:13] To what can I compare you…?: the author calls attention to the poetic task: to find language that speaks adequately of the atrocities and incomparable suffering experienced by Zion, and thus to attempt to offer comfort. (Lamentations, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB, n.d.)

 Psalm 74 is a lament sung when the enemy invaded the Temple.

* [Psalm 74] A communal lament sung when the enemy invaded the Temple; it would be especially appropriate at the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. Israel’s God is urged to look upon the ruined sanctuary and remember the congregation who worshiped there (Ps 74:1–11). People and sanctuary are bound together; an attack on Zion is an attack on Israel. In the second half of the poem, the community brings before God the story of their origins—their creation (Ps 74:12–17)—in order to move God to reenact that deed of creation now. Will God allow a lesser power to destroy the divine project (Ps 74:18–23)? (Psalms, PSALM 74 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus presents Healing of a Centurion’s Servant and Cure of Peter’s Mother-in-Law.

* [8:5] A centurion: a military officer commanding a hundred men. He was probably in the service of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee; see note on Mt 14:1.

* [8:8–9] Acquainted by his position with the force of a command, the centurion expresses faith in the power of Jesus’ mere word.

* [8:10] In no one in Israel: there is good textual attestation (e.g., Codex Sinaiticus) for a reading identical with that of Lk 7:9, “not even in Israel.” But that seems to be due to a harmonization of Matthew with Luke.

* [8:11–12] Matthew inserts into the story a Q saying (see Lk 13:28–29) about the entrance of Gentiles into the kingdom and the exclusion of those Israelites who, though descended from the patriarchs and members of the chosen nation (the children of the kingdom), refused to believe in Jesus. There will be wailing and grinding of teeth: the first occurrence of a phrase used frequently in this gospel to describe final condemnation (Mt 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). It is found elsewhere in the New Testament only in Lk 13:28.

* [8:14–15] Cf. Mk 1:29–31. Unlike Mark, Matthew has no implied request by others for the woman’s cure. Jesus acts on his own initiative, and the cured woman rises and waits not on “them” (Mk 1:31) but on him.

* [8:16] By a word: a Matthean addition to Mk 1:34; cf. 8:8.

* [8:17] This fulfillment citation from Is 53:4 follows the MT, not the LXX. The prophet speaks of the Servant of the Lord who suffers vicariously for the sins (“infirmities”) of others; Matthew takes the infirmities as physical afflictions. (Matthew, CHAPTER 8 | USCCB, n.d.)

Rev. Rashmi Fernando, SJ, comments that the Gospel today is a reminder that Christ’s mission is always to heal, restore, and give life. He enters our fears, our wounds, our anxieties, our disappointments, and our brokenness. He still bears our infirmities and carries our burdens.

Perhaps the Lord is inviting us today to become like the centurion: humble enough to admit our need, compassionate enough to care for others, and trusting enough to believe that one word from Christ can change everything.

 

Three questions to ponder:

1.    In what areas of my life have I limited God’s power to my own expectations, assumptions, or understanding?

2.    In what areas of my life do I feel called to approach Jesus with the humility, trust, and faith of the centurion, recognizing my deep need for His grace and healing?

3.    Who is the “servant” in my life today—a family member, friend, colleague, stranger, or even an enemy—for whom I am called to intercede, care, and pray with humility, compassion, and faith? (Fernando, n.d.)

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) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 8:5-17 comments that the faith of this Gentile amazed Jesus! It was simple and sure, just the kind of faith that God was looking for. And it’s a great example for us. We don’t have to prove our worthiness in order to come to Jesus with our needs.

So let’s bring our needs before Jesus today with the kind of faith that the centurion showed—a faith that amazed and pleased Jesus. Let’s approach the Lord in humility, knowing that we can’t come to him on our own merit. But let’s also come with the confidence that a mere word from Jesus has the power to move mountains.

“Lord, though I am not worthy, I trust in your power and your love. Say the word, and heal me and those for whom I pray.” (Meditation on Matthew 8:5-17, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the texts for today In Lamentations, a section that laments the destruction of Jerusalem and the sufferings the people undergo. We don’t have to hide our emotions but like the Jews we want God to be part of our sufferings . Our devotion to the Sacred is God seeing that our hearts are broken. The centurion does not have to require Jesus to come to his home This is a gracious act as Jesus would be considered unclean. The Centurion knows the word will heal that servant. The passage from the Gospel of Matthew becomes a taunt and Matthew cites Isaiah to show how Jesus took away our infirmities and bore our diseases. The belief in One God means God has to be the God of all nations and Jesus fulfills this proclamation in His healing of the centurion’s servant.

Richard Rohr introduces Dr. Luther E. Smith Jr. who describes how singing as a spiritual practice can enable us to embody hope. Dr. Smith comments that Howard Thurman’s meditation “I Will Sing a New Song” builds on the Psalm 40 phrase “He [God] put a new song in my mouth,” which describes the creative response persons “must” make when previous understandings and efforts have proven deficient. In part it reads:

I will sing a new song

I must learn the new song for the new needs.

I must fashion new words born of all the new growth

            of my life—of my mind—of my spirit. [1]

The meditation names a faithful response to hope—a response that births faithful hopefulness. Singing a new song is both a means to and a sign of personal transformation. Transformation to God-centered hopefulness and beloved community is hope’s enlivening purpose…. (Rohr, n.d.)

We contemplate the richness of human culture through which the Spirit is invoked to join our lamentation in the songs and music that help carry us through hope to faith and love.

References

Fernando, R. (n.d.). Daily Reflections. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-june-27-2026 

Lamentations, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/lamentations/2? 

Matthew, CHAPTER 8 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Bible Readings, Audio and Video Every Morning | USCCB. Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/8?5 

Meditation on Matthew 8:5-17. (n.d.). Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/06/27/1601158/ 

Psalms, PSALM 74 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/74?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. CAC.org. Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/hope-in-hard-times-weekly-summary/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Say the Word and My Servant Will Be Healed. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

 

Law of Love and Humility

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to embrace our experience of childhood and children as possible sources of understanding the centrality of love, trust, awe, imagination, and humility to our fullness of life in the human community.

Becoming Great

The reading from the Prophet Ezekiel describes eating of the Scroll prior to speaking to the house of Israel.

* [3:3] As sweet as honey: though the prophet must foretell terrible things, the word of God is sweet to the one who receives it. (Ezekiel, CHAPTER 3, n.d.)

Psalm 119 praises the Glories of God’s Law.

* [Psalm 119] This Psalm, the longest by far in the Psalter, praises God for giving such splendid laws and instruction for people to live by. The author glorifies and thanks God for the Torah, prays for protection from sinners enraged by others’ fidelity to the law, laments the cost of obedience, delights in the law’s consolations, begs for wisdom to understand the precepts, and asks for the rewards of keeping them. (Psalms, PSALM 119, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus indicates true Greatness and shares the Parable of the Lost Sheep.

* [18:3] Become like children: the child is held up as a model for the disciples not because of any supposed innocence of children but because of their complete dependence on, and trust in, their parents. So must the disciples be, in respect to God. (Matthew, CHAPTER 18, n.d.)

Kimberly Grassmeyer remembers Grandma Alice who expressed her faith and her love of Jesus in her treatment of her grandchildren – never lording over but rather, as the Gospel reading from Matthew suggests, becoming humble and receiving each of us as a gift from God.  

Jesus called us to love our neighbors as ourselves and, in this reading, to humble ourselves and become like children.  I don’t believe he is asking that we forego the responsibilities and seriousness that accompany adulthood.  But I do believe that he is imploring us to not become so cynical and sinful that we can no longer engage with and appreciate God’s creation through the innocent, trusting and joyful eyes of a child. 

Jesus is also asking us, through his parable of the shepherd, to never give up on our ‘strays’ – those around us, young and old alike – who venture away from their faith.  God doesn't desire that anyone be lost, and it is our charge to remain hopeful, trusting, and joyful in our faith so as to inspire others and find our place in God's Kingdom.  

I hope for you that you see the smile, hear the singing, or experience the joy of a child today – and that when you do, you are reminded that Jesus has given you permission - in fact, has invited you! – to join in.   God bless you! (Creighton U. Daily Reflection, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “What it means to become a child of God,” by Epiphanius the Latin (late 5th century).

"Here the Lord not only repressed the apostles' thoughts but also checked the ambition of believers throughout the whole world, so that he might be great who wanted to be least. For with this purpose Jesus used the example of the child, that what he had been through his nature, we through our holy living might become - innocent, like children innocent of every sin. For a child does not know how to hold resentment or to grow angry. He does not know how to repay evil for evil. He does not think base thoughts. He does not commit adultery or arson or murder. He is utterly ignorant of theft or brawling or all the things that will draw him to sin. He does not know how to disparage, how to blaspheme, how to hurt, how to lie. He believes what he hears. What he is ordered he does not analyze. He loves his parents with full affection. Therefore what children are in their simplicity, let us become through a holy way of life, as children innocent of sin. And quite rightly, one who has become a child innocent of sin in this way is greater in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives such a person will receive Christ." (excerpt from INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPELS 27) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14 comments that it isn’t always easy to recapture our childlike innocence and trust—especially if we’ve been hurt in the past. That means we may get discouraged when we find ourselves falling back into patterns of cynicism or world-weariness or pride.

But remember, becoming like children means coming to your heavenly Father. And like any good father, he is always proud whenever a child of his takes even a small step of progress. He rejoices every time you notice a fault and ask his help in overcoming it.

When Jesus said, “It is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost,” he wasn’t just talking about children (Matthew 18:14). He was talking about all of God’s “little ones”—each one of us who is trying to live as his own beloved child. God doesn’t want you to get “lost” in the maze of “grown-up” life in this world. He wants to help you. He is always ready to forgive you, encourage you, and strengthen you.

“Lord, help me let go of my pride and self-centered ways so that I can become more like the child of God you created me to be.” (Meditation on Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the psychological state of Ezekiel as he tastes the sweetness of the Scroll of the Word and experiences the bitterness of lamentations therein. Three messages in Matthew today involve childlike acceptance of Mystery, awe and wonder, and the concept of a guardian angel. Friar Jude reminds us that we may not appreciate the need that moves the Shepherd to seek the one missing from the ninety-nine.

On the Memorial of St. Teresa Benedictia of the Cross, today, Joe Egerton, awarded the Robert Schuman Silver Medal for European Unity in 1985, explains why the philosopher Edith Stein – St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Discalced Carmelite, who was murdered at Auschwitz and who, in 1999, Pope St John Paul II made one of the six patron saints of Europe, matters to us today. 

An important further contribution of Edith Stein to political philosophy is her denial that the nation is the largest community to which a human being can belong. She is emphatic that each of us belongs to an overarching community, which is the whole of humankind…. That argument can only be valid if all humanity – especially those most disadvantaged – benefit, if the common good of all people of all nations is the aim.

Co-patroness of Europe

In Fides et Ratio, Pope St John Paul II gave us a reason to pay attention to Edith Stein’s writings:

One thing is certain: attention to the spiritual journey of [Edith Stein] can only give greater momentum to both the search for truth and the effort to apply the results of that search to the service of humanity[17].

When he went on to mark the coming of a new millennium by proclaiming St Edith Stein, St Bridget of Sweden and St Catherine of Sienna as co-patronesses of Europe, he set the former’s life before us as an example:

Today's proclamation of Edith Stein as a Co-Patroness of Europe is intended to raise on this Continent a banner of respect, tolerance and acceptance which invites all men and women to understand and appreciate each other, transcending their ethnic, cultural and religious differences in order to form a truly fraternal society.[18]

As we face the turmoil of Brexit and the reappearance of authoritarianism and anti-Semitism, we can ask St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross to intercede for us and ask for the aid of the Holy Spirit in order to turn this vision of Europe into a reality. (Egerton, 2018)

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that after being diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, theologian and author Kate Bowler worked intensively to know and love her body and its ways of both serving and failing her. 

But God knows what it’s like to live in flesh. . . . If God too lived in a body, then God knows the ache of growing pains and the feeling of goosebumps on a brisk day and the comfort of a warm embrace. He felt the gurgle of a hungry stomach and the annoying prick of a splinter after a day of hard work. He wept over the death of a friend. Ours is a God who sneezed and rubbed His eyes when He was sleepy. Ours is a God who knew longing, heartbreak, excitement, frustration—the full range of what it means to be human . . . [and] live in a body.

So when my own body drags me down, when my muscles ache, when my worries keep me up at night, when my fear for the future leaves me motionless, when I feel lonely and exhausted and burdened, I do not worship a God who is far off.

This is a God who knows my humanity inside and out. God has counted every hair on my head (Matthew 10:30) and bottled up every tear I have shed (Psalm 56:8). Not simply because the Word formed us (Genesis 1:27), knit us together in our mothers’ wombs (Psalm 139:13), was there from the very beginning . . . but because God wore our skin. (Rohr, n.d.)

We are sometimes made aware of our inner child by the prompting of the Spirit as we journey in search of truth, beauty, and love for all.

References

Creighton U. Daily Reflection. (n.d.). Online Ministries. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/080922.html 

Egerton, J. (2018, August 8). Edith Stein: truth at the service of humanity. Thinking Faith. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/edith-stein-truth-service-humanity 

Ezekiel, CHAPTER 3. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/3 

Matthew, CHAPTER 18. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/18?1 

Meditation on Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/08/09/464974/ 

Psalms, PSALM 119. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/119?14 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/knowing-and-loving-our-bodies-2022-08-09/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=aug9