Meditation Minute

My Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

 

“Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.” 

 

Gospel Reading: Luke 7:1-10

 

When Jesus had finished all his words to the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die, and he was valuable to him. When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and save the life of his slave. They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying, "He deserves to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us." And Jesus went with them, but when he was only a short distance from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a person 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 at him and, turning, said to the crowd following him, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." When the messengers returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

 

Today’s Gospel reading is the source for the new liturgy translation we use in Mass, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”  We must realize acknowledge our unworthiness, our humbleness before God.  We must accept that He is the master and we are his servants. The theme today is about coming to Christ and coming to know Christ.  The centurion in today’s reading was obviously not Jewish and would have been discouraged from even caring about the Jews.  So it was unexpected that he would come to Christ for a Jewish person, a person who was his slave.  Yet he had the courage to overcome the ridicule and possible retaliation from his own people to help this lowly servant.  This centurion was more concerned about the slave then he was about his own honor and dignity among the Roman elite.  He elevated the value of the servant above him when he asked Jesus to cure the slave.  As the centurion approached Jesus he said to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.”  This was an outward sign of his humility.  The centurion obviously recognized who was the greater person.  We too must accept humility before we can accept help from the Lord.  We must recognize our unworthiness and our sinfulness before we can open our hearts to allow the Lord to come in.  Jesus responded to this demonstration by saying, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”  This is the same response we get when we humble ourselves before Christ and invite him into our lives.  The door to salvation is right in front of us and humility is the key which opens the lock and lets you in. 

 

A Simple Prayer

 

Lord, I am not worthy of your help for I am a sinner

But say the word, and let my servant be healed.

Increase my faith so I can stand true even when it is not popular.

 

Yours in Christ:

Michael Marcon