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/ 

 

Lamentations and Learning

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the anxiety that sometimes accompanies the love that we have for each other.

Care and learning

The reading, chosen by the USCCB, from the Book of Lamentations describes the Lord’s Wrath and Zion’s Ruin.

* [2:1–22] This chapter continues to move between the voice of the poet (vv. 1–20) and that of personified Zion (vv. 20–22). The persona of the poet, first portrayed in chap. 1 as a detached observer recounting both the desolation as well as the sins of the city, becomes in this chapter an advocate for Zion in her appeal to the Lord and never once mentions her sins. (Lamentations, CHAPTER 2, n.d.)

The reading, chosen by the CCCB, is from Isaiah 61.9-11 and declares the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

Psalm 74 is a plea for help in times of national humiliation.

* [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, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Luke, Mary and Joseph find the boy Jesus in the Temple.

* [2:41–52] This story’s concern with an incident from Jesus’ youth is unique in the canonical gospel tradition. It presents Jesus in the role of the faithful Jewish boy, raised in the traditions of Israel, and fulfilling all that the law requires. With this episode, the infancy narrative ends just as it began, in the setting of the Jerusalem temple. (Luke, CHAPTER 2, n.d.)

Eileen Burke-Sullivan comments that Mary had to discern, to think about and pray about this event (along with others) to begin to understand something of what the Angel Gabriel had said to her about who Jesus was and is. So must the whole Church ponder in our hearts what it is that Jesus is asking of us through the signs of the times.  Through the confusions and conflicts of our day.  Through the divisions and distortions of certitude that have been too easy at other times in Christian life. How do we know how to love God, which is the central work of the Church, and the dilemma of our day?  To love means to know and follow the Divine Will – which is EVER NEW and constantly revealed anew in the signs of the times?

We can be faithful only by discerning God’s desire and seeking to follow it at whatever personal cost.  To do that we must ponder in our hearts, prayerfully listening and weighing events, attentively guided by the Spirit discovering anew what God’s Will is for each of us and for all of us together.  Mary stands today as the perfect expression of the Church – attentive, loving, patient, occasionally confused, sometimes anxious, but eager to be faithful to the love she has been given.  As members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we ponder with Mary all these things in our hearts and act as faithfully as we can in love. (Creighton U. Daily Reflection, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 2:41-51 notes that we know how anxiety, if left unchecked, can lead to sin. It can give way to angry outbursts; it can make us fold in on ourselves and begin mistrusting people; it can make us think that God doesn’t care about us, so why should we care about him? Surely Mary was tempted in these ways, but she never gave in. She didn’t belittle or upbraid Jesus when she found him. She didn’t harbor bitterness against him. And she didn’t lose her temper when he offered what might have seemed at first like a disrespectful response. Mary did the one thing God wants each of us to try to do when anxiety looms: she “kept all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51).

As she is in so many other ways, Mary is our model for how to respond when anxiety threatens to overwhelm us. We may not have pure, immaculate hearts like hers, but we can still try to refocus our attention on the Lord and his love. We can still bring our anxieties to our heavenly Father and ask him to help us make sense of them. And there, in the sanctuary of our hearts, we can find Jesus again. “Immaculate Mary, help me keep my heart as peaceful as yours was." (Meditation on Luke 2:41-51, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments that the images of mourning from Lamentations parallel the image of Mary who shared in the wound of Jesus. Of the two infancy narratives in Luke and Matthew, the teenage Jesus in the Temple only appears in Luke. Friar Jude notes how Jesus does what he is supposed to do in his culture from age twelve to thirty.

Rev. Daniel E. Pilarczyk comments that the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary commemorates the love of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Love is not the same as affection or liking somebody. Love means reaching out for the well- being of another--means to do good for another.

When we say that Mary loves us we’re speaking about her determination to do what is good for us, to lead us where Jesus wants us to go. Mary loves us because Jesus loves us and wants to bring us to salvation. She loves us when we have sinned and need to be brought back into the embrace of Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners. Keep loving us! Keep bringing us closer to the Lord. (Sharing the Word for June 25, 2022, 2022)

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that Buddhist author Valerie Mason-John encourages us to remain emotionally sober by practicing a detox of the heart, allowing ourselves to experience waves of emotion and let them go.

If we are to detox our hearts, build up our heart muscles, and become happier, we must cultivate mindfulness in everything we do. . . . With the presence of awareness we can see there is no need to hold on to or push away our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. They will come and go of their own accord. If we push them away or cling to them they will stay in our hearts and accumulate. Similarly, if we allow our thoughts to be like clouds in the sky, they will pass. Even the dark, heavy clouds eventually pass. (Rohr, n.d.)

We seek the enlightenment of the Spirit for times when our loving concern for those close to us may generate confusion and distress.

References

Creighton U. Daily Reflection. (n.d.). Online Ministries. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/062522.html 

Lamentations, CHAPTER 2. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/lamentations/2?2 

Luke, CHAPTER 2. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/2?41 

Meditation on Luke 2:41-51. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/06/25/419978/ 

Psalms, PSALM 74. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/74?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Emotional Sobriety: Weekly Summary. Daily Meditations Archive: 2022. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/emotional-sobriety-weekly-summary-2022-06-25/ 

Sharing the Word for June 25, 2022. (2022, June 25). Franciscan Media. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://www.franciscanmedia.org/sharing-the-word/sharing-the-word-for-june-25-2022