Daily Readings
ALIEN NO LONGER
September 13, Monday
TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Paul urges Christians through Timothy to be mediators by our supplications, prayers and intercessions for all of humankind. The basis is that Christ is the one mediator between God and humanity and God wants all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. How universal God’s plan and will to save!
Today we have the beautiful scene of the Roman centurion asking Jesus through emissaries to heal his slave. He loved the Jewish people and had faith in Jesus because of what he had heard about Jesus. Another sign of faith, something unusual in a world of slavery, seems to be that he begged for the healing of a slave. We hear him also say the words we use in the eucharistic celebration, that he is not worthy of Jesus coming to his house.
First Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.
He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.
Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God.
Gospel: Luke 7:1-10
When he finished speaking to the people, he entered Capernaum. A Roman captain there had a servant who was on his deathbed. He prized him highly and didn’t want to lose him. When he heard Jesus was back, he sent leaders from the Jewish community asking him to come and heal his servant. They came to Jesus and urged him to do it, saying, “He deserves this. He loves our people. He even built our meeting place.”
Jesus went with them. When he was still quite far from the house, the captain sent friends to tell him, “Master, you don’t have to go to all this trouble. I’m not that good a person, you know. I’d be embarrassed for you to come to my house, even embarrassed to come to you in person. Just give the order and my servant will get well. I’m a man under orders; I also give orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
Taken aback, Jesus addressed the accompanying crowd: “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust anywhere in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know about God and how he works.” When the messengers got back home, they found the servant up and well.
Prayer
Lord God, Father of all,
you call people from every language, culture and nation
to worship you and to live in your love.
Let your Son Jesus Christ speak among us
your saving word that brings healing to all.
May many accept his invitation
to sit with us at his table.
Give us enough faith and love
that we, too, like you and your Son,
may turn strangers into friends.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Reflection:
Lord, only a say Word…
God’s loving care and salvation is not reserved to any particular religion or group alone. The Jews always considered themselves to be chosen people of God and regarded outsiders as pagans and unclean. Their scrupulous observation of purification rituals were mostly for purifying themselves from articles or places that were touched by the pagans and had become unclean. If a Jew had travelled into a pagan territory, as he or she walked away from the territory, was supposed to shake off even the dust from their legs, so that not even the dust that was pagan would be carried into the holly land. It is in such a background, that Luke presents this beautiful story of the of a pagan centurion who shows great concern for his servant. Luke presents this outsider official as a good man who also maintained a good relationship with the Jewish elders. Later on, he will profess his faith in the power of Jesus – his absolute trust in Jesus’ ability to command to the evil powers – because, illnesses were understood as the result of evil forces. He will also profess his unworthiness to receive Jesus in his household. “Not even in Israel, have I found such faith,” was how Jesus would respond to this outsider’s act of faith. Luke, who moved with Paul in his evangelising mission among the gentiles, was absolutely certain that Jesus’ mission was not limited to the Jewish Christians alone. The pagans, the outsiders too shared great faith in Jesus and believed that Jesus could save them from evil forces and death. In the Acts of the Apostles, we will find Luke narrating the touching story of how the pagan soldier Cornelius and his entire household received baptism from Peter. Indeed, God’s salvation is an open invitation to the whole humanity. Our initial catechism for the faithful must instil in our minds this truth of God’s mercy and salvation for the universe. Instead, our faulty understanding of catechism could lead us into the wrong concepts that we believe in a Catholic God! The pagan centurion’s prayer, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof… but say only a word…” has become our own prayer – we pray this every time when we prepare to receive the Eucharist during the Mass. Let us pray this with sincerity of heart. Let the example of the centurion inspire us to accept our brothers and sisters who do not share our faith, with open hearts and open arms.
Video available on Youtube: Lord, only a say Word…