Today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. Matthew tells us of the Centurion who came to our Lord Jesus Christ to seek from Him the healing of his servant, who was paralyzed. We know that the servant is healed, because our Lord promises that it will be so; and St. Matthew reports that the servant was healed in the same hour – which is to say, at the same time – that our Lord made this promise to the Centurion. If we look more closely, we see that we do not know the faith of the servant; we do not know if he had any idea that Jesus was the Messiah. We should also see that the Centurion was not a member of the household of God, as this was understood at the time. That is to say, he was not a Jew. But he acted on faith; and so obtained what he desired.
On its surface, this is a story about healing – that is to say, the healing (or curing, if you will) – of a physical ailment, and the connection faith has to our physical well-being. Undoubtedly, when we are sick, or feel ourselves getting sick, we pray and ask God to restore us to health. Likewise, when a member of our family, or a friend, or maybe a person prominent in our lives falls ill, we pray for them to be healed. All of these things are good, and proper. We should, indeed, ask these things in prayer, for ourselves, and for others. You’ll note that we pray for those who are ill at each Divine Liturgy. Not only that: we should ask these things with the trust, the faith, that, as our Lord heard the Centurion’s request for the healing of his servant, so, too, will He hear our prayers for healing; and, as He offered to go to the servant with the Centurion, so, too, will He come to us. We may not always obtain what is needed for a return to health as we understand it; but we will always receive what is needed for the salvation of our souls, for this, above all, is what God desires: that we repent of our sins, and turn from the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and walk with Him, in the way He has prepared for us, so that we may enter into life without end in the joy and glory of His presence.
We must also be aware that this Gospel involves more than just physical healing. Our Lord Jesus became incarnate, in part to fix what had become broken and flawed in us as a result of sin, beginning with the sin of Adam and Eve. Each one of us is, in effect, the servant in need of healing, for we are paralyzed by our sins. This is to say that we cannot travel the way God has provided for us because of our sins. As such, in order to make the journey, we must call out to the merciful Lord in repentance, asking the forgiveness of our sins, and for the healing of that which we have weakened, even unto death, by clinging to our passions, rather than embracing the way of life given to us by God through the Church. Of course, we should ask this for ourselves; but we should ask it as well for every other person in our lives: those whom we love, and who love us; and also for those who hate us, or who have offended us. When someone cuts us off in traffic, we should not be provoked to harden our hearts, to anger, or to condemnation of that person. How much better off would we be if we, instead, asked God to forgive and heal and protect that person? And how much better off would we be if those we have hurt or offended, either knowingly or unknowingly, prayed for us to be healed, rather than becoming angry, rather than cursing, rather than condemning?
Brothers and sisters, called to be saints: our Lord Jesus Christ is among us today, to heal our wounds, to heal our sicknesses, in body, mind, and spirit. Let us, with faith, draw near to Him in prayer, for our needs, and for the needs of others – to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.
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