Long Distance Healing

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.

It is nice to hear two people who know who they are and what authority they hold to speak to one another. In today's reading, we hear a Centurian, a professional soldier who was in the army for life and Jesus who had the reputation of being a prophet and a healer speak together.  The Centurian for his part has a sick servant.  This tells us a little bit more about who the Centurian was.  We know he was a professional soldier.  A Centurian commanded about eighty soldiers but a senior Centurian would take on more responsibility and as we see in this case, had at least one servant to take care of him.  This shows us that our hero is in the senior ranks of Centurians, a man of authority, a man to be respected.  That is what makes his display of faith so moving. He was used to getting what he wanted and knew the satisfaction of command.  He understood in a way who Jesus was and he knew he was speaking to another Man of authority.  The Centurion himself knew that Jesus was a good man who was gentle and caring while he was none of those things. He did care about his servant and he knew that Jesus could do something.  He asked Jesus to help and at once Jesus made to go to the Centurian's abode and cure the servant.  The Centurian said that it was not necessary that Jesus come in person, that he knew that Jesus could simply command and it would be done.  This is the type of faith that Jesus was looking for and hoping to receive from His people, the Israelites.  He was touched that this pagan could display such faith and He immediately cured the servant. 

I feel sorry for non-Catholics.  They do not have the notion of what it is like to know absolutely that your sins have been forgiven as we do in the sacrament of confession. What Jesus did for the servant of the Centurion, He wants to do for us.  Promise me that you will at least think about going to confession soon.  It is a wonderful sacrament and the healing and graces it brings to your soul will help strengthen you. 

Pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory today!