HOMILY FOR MONDAY 24TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME B
{Corinthians 11:17-26,33;Luke 7:1-10}
Jesus’ healing of the centurion’s slave, described in today’s Gospel, shows us how God listens to our Faith-filled prayers and meets our needs. Matthew (8:5-13) indicates that the centurion came to Jesus personally. Centurions were reliable, commanding officers, brave captains in charge of 100 soldiers in Rome and 80 soldiers in first century AD Palestine. They were the backbone of the Roman army. According to Luke’s account (Lk 7:1-10), this centurion loved the Jews, respected their religious customs, built a synagogue for them, loved his sick servant, trusted in Jesus’ power of healing, and was ready to face the ridicule of his fellow-centurions by pleading before a Jewish rabbi.
The centurion asked Jesus to give a command, as the centurion did with his soldiers, so that the illness might leave his servant by the power of that order. Jesus was moved by the centurion’s Faith-filled request and rewarded the trusting Faith of this Gentile officer by performing a telepathic healing. When we ask for the intercession of the saints, we are like the centurion, acknowledging that we are not worthy, by our own merits, to stand before the Lord and bring Him our request.
Dear brothers and sisters, the CCC tells us that before we can love and serve God, we need to know God. in other words, we need to grow to the level of the Faith of the centurion by knowing and personally experiencing Jesus in our lives. We do so by daily meditative reading of the Bible, by our daily personal and family prayers, and by frequenting the Sacraments, especially the Eucharistic celebration. The next step to which the Holy Spirit brings us to doing this, is the complete surrender of our whole being and life to Jesus whom we have experienced, by rendering loving service to others, seeing Jesus in them.
PAX VOBIS
Catholic Diocese of Ilorin, Kwara State,
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