Saturday, Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading, we hear of Jesus healing the servant of the centurion at a distance and, then, healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law by touching her hand. In the episode before today’s gospel reading, Jesus had healed the leper by touching him. Jesus did not usually heal people at a distance. He healed people close up, touching the lives of the physically and spiritually broken. If Jesus had gone to the home of the centurion, he would probably have healed the servant by touching him. However, the centurion would not allow Jesus to come to his home, to draw physically close to his servant. He felt unworthy to have Jesus, a renowned Jewish man of God, come to his pagan home. This man of authority showed tremendous sensitivity to Jesus’ Jewishness, as well as great faith in Jesus’ ability to heal his servant at a distance. The gospel reading says that Jesus was astonished at the centurion’s words and the attitude they expressed. The church has shared Jesus’ astonishment. That is why a version of the words of the centurion have made their way into the text of the Mass. It is striking that a version of the words first spoken by a pagan officer of Rome are now spoken by believers who come to celebrate the Eucharist, ‘I am not worthy to have you under my roof; say but the word and my soul will be healed’. The centurion looked for physical healing for his servant; we look for spiritual healing for our souls before we receive the Lord in the Eucharist. Like the centurion, we express our faith in Jesus’ ability to heal us at a distance. Jesus is at a distance from us, in the sense that he is not physically present to us in the way he was to the centurion. Yet, in another sense, Jesus is not at a distance from us, especially when we celebrate Mass. He is spiritually present among us in a very powerful way, touching our lives with his healing love, as he touched the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law.