Monday of Week 24 in Ordinary Time
1 Tim 2:1-8
Lk 7:1-10
…he wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth.
Healing takes time. And healing takes place in many ways, through many channels. Many of these would be beyond our imagination. How many of us deeply believe that God wants to heal everyone… especially ourselves?
The gospel passage today of the Centurion’s faith challenges me to ponder more closely about God’s power and authority. While he had asked some Jewish elders to request for Jesus’s presence and healing for his servant (keeping in mind, the Centurion himself was neither Jew, not Christ’s follower), he had also later sent his friends to meet up with Jesus to tell him not to trouble coming all the way to his place. The Centurion simply believed that Jesus was able to “give the word” of healing from wherever He was, and Thy will shalt be done. In humility, he acknowledged that he understood the authority a master or commander had over his soldiers or servants (for he was one), but he did not equate himself to Christ, in fact, confessing that he was “not worthy to have you under my roof”.
Jesus was ‘astonished’ at the Centurion’s faith in His power — the authority to command healing even from afar. That is to say, he believed that Jesus was truly the Christ and the Son of God. And not a mere physician or miracle healer.
Many of us mutter those words, “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed” at the Liturgy of the Eucharist during Mass, just before Communion. Yet do we really understand why we repeat these very words spoken by the Centurion?
We are imitating the Centurion’s absolute faith in Christ’s divinity. And in the present moment of the Eucharist, at the point after the Consecration where the priest says, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sin of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” if we truly believe that Christ’s flesh is indeed present in the Blessed Sacrament, we should therefore rightfully fall on the ground in utter humility and adoration as we gaze upon the Body of Christ. We are not worthy of His blood and redemption, and yet, we have been chosen, forgiven and redeemed.
How amazing to be considered worthy of God’s love. How blindingly grace-filled to be invited to the Supper of the Lamb, to partake of the holiest of meals. We did nothing to deserve His love and can do nothing to be more deserving of His love.
Likewise, we can do nothing to be more deserving of any of the healing we desire so much for, whether it be from medical afflictions, psychological afflictions, or emotional wounds. But are reminded in 1 Timothy 2:1-8 in the first reading today, that “[God] wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth… there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and mankind… Christ Jesus, who sacrificed himself as a ransom for all.”
To pray for healing is oftentimes a cry of prayer to be saved from our present illnesses, pain, suffering, and troubled relationships or psychological challenges. Healing does not come immediately, and it can be demoralising when we ponder ‘why’?
However, we can indeed pray to be saved, and faithfully believe that God has already saved us. We can be saved from the fear of pain and suffering. We can be saved from the anxiety and misplaced expectation that causes us to only accept miracles of total healing as having had our prayers heard. We can be saved from our petty views of others that plague our embittered relationships. We can be saved from our superficial preoccupation with material comforts and admiration of our life on earth… from the kind of fearful living that makes one wonder whether one has finally ‘arrived’ at success (or not).
(Today’s OXYGEN by Debbie Loo)
Prayer: We pray that we can be saved from our unbelief — may this be the prayer we might more often make. So that we would not be found unprepared when our bridegroom appears.
Thanksgiving: Holy God, who desired to save us even when we were unbelieving and unworthy. We praise and thank You for Your great glory, Your everlasting love and Your never-ceasing grace.
OXYGEN 
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