Jesus was amazed and said to those following Him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” Matthew 8:10
I wonder of how many people in the Philippines or in the world, will Jesus be impressed enough to say this? The man was not even a Jew, he was not even one of the priests of the Temple! He was a centurion, an officer of the Roman infantry who commanded a centuria composed of anywhere from 100 to 1000 legionaries. He was a pagan, but certainly not an unbeliever.
The centurion approached Jesus and pleaded with Him to heal his servant who was paralyzed and suffering dreadfully. From the first, we see he is no ordinary man. He is a compassionate man who does not look down on others. Jesus sees his heart and immediately answers, “I will come and cure your servant.” Then the centurion says, “Lord, I am not worthy to have You enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” Every time we attend mass, before we receive the Eucharist, we say the words of this centurion who knew more about Jesus than the Jews around him.
“I have soldiers under me. I say to one, ‘Go’ and he goes. I say to another, ‘Do this’ and he does it.” The centurion understood that Jesus need not go anywhere near his house to heal his servant. “Just say the word!” How do we get a faith like this centurion?
First, we need to approach Jesus in humility, knowing He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We need not be afraid that He will spurn us, whatever kind of person we are. The centurion was a man of war, but he knew in his heart of hearts that if he had compassion for his servant, more so would Jesus have it. We need to trust that Jesus will help us, even if we are unworthy.
Yesterday, I was listening to Bishop Robert Barron’s homily on Advent. He quoted Dorothy Day, best known for her social action efforts with the Catholic Worker Movement. She said, “I’m so grateful that Jesus arrived in this sort of filthy stable some 2,000 years ago. How come? Because that’s what my heart is like, a filthy stable. It’s not beautiful, it’s not altogether, not well arranged, full of all kinds of stinky things. I mean, that’s what my heart is.”
We are all unworthy to have Jesus under our roof. Let us have faith enough to know that Jesus wants to come and visit us this season of Advent, no matter how stinky our hearts are!
