Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 26, 2021
When Jesus entered Capernaum,
a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”
He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”
The centurion said in reply,
“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my servant will be healed.
For I too am a man 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 and said to those following him,
“Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,
and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven,
but the children of the Kingdom
will be driven out into the outer darkness,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
And Jesus said to the centurion,
“You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.”
And at that very hour his servant was healed.
Jesus entered the house of Peter,
and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.
He touched her hand, the fever left her,
and she rose and waited on him.
When it was evening, they brought him many
who were possessed by demons,
and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick,
to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet:
He took away our infirmities
and bore our diseases.
“Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
Every time I say these words at Mass along with the rest of the congregation, I truly feel that they are my words—they come from my soul because I know I have blown it again that week. I hang my head and feel unworthy—I am not holy, I mess up, and I’m not sure I will ever get this right. I keep sinning with anger and holding grudges. My faults don’t go away.
So each Sunday as I sit in the pew, taking it all in, I try to make myself a “worthy” person. I hope that this next week will be better. But of course I blow it. So the next Sunday I’m back there, hanging my head and looking down, almost afraid to imagine the look on Jesus’s face again as I admit that “I am not worthy.”
I feel as if I’ll never get it right before judgment day. I’m always late and missing due dates, and this is just one more huge deadline I might fumble! As I get older, I realize I don’t have forever. Just like the week before finals, I get more anxious, as if time is running out and I may never make it.
But then I go to Confession, and hear these words: “Through the ministry of the Church, may God grant you pardon and peace, and I absolve you of your sins.” Those words give me confidence that I could look up and gaze into Jesus’ face and see him smile. They give me the courage to say to him, “Only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
Jesus’ forgiveness frees me from the negative dialogue in my head. I no longer just hope I might be healed, but I can take on the same unwavering faith of the centurion. That healing brings peace and calm, and destroys my anxiety. It allows me to trust in God’s love, so I can let go of what I didn’t do right and allow the Lord to lead me.
Prayer
What an extraordinary man that centurion must have been. He loved his slave, which was totally against the grain of his culture. He approached Jesus knowing his fellow soldiers would probably ridicule and mock him. He was humble and respectful, unusual for a soldier of an occupying force. May we approach you, Jesus, with the centurion’s expectant yet confident faith, knowing that you will show us your mercy and give us your help. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Josemaria Escriva is known for founding Opus Dei, an organization of Catholics who seek holiness in daily life.
He was born in Spain in 1902 to a devout family. He had five siblings, but three of his sisters died as infants. His father owned a small business but struggled to stay afloat and finally filed for bankruptcy. These misfortunes seemed to have matured Josemaria at an early age.
As a teenager, he once discovered the footprints a monk left behind in the snow—the image struck him and awoke within him a desire to become a priest. He entered the seminary and was ordained in 1925.
In 1927, Josemaria moved to Madrid to begin graduate study in civil law. Because his father had died three years prior, his mother, sister, and brother joined him—Josemaria was the family provider and supported them by tutoring other law students.
During this time, he also took on pastoral care for people who were sick or poor, as well as manual laborers in Madrid. University students who came to know him joined him in this work. When he was on retreat in 1928, it became clear to him that he should formalize this way of life and organize a Catholic community under the name Opus Dei, or “work of God.”
The community included clergy and laypeople, married and single people, men and women. It involved people from all walks of life in the effort to follow Jesus and seek holiness in their daily experience. The idea of Opus Dei was not to find holiness by escaping the world, as monks did, but by entering it more deeply and sanctifying it in the way members fulfill their responsibilities in their occupations and families and communities.
Josemaria’s work was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936 and included a violent persecution of the Catholic Church. Many priests were killed, but Josemaria escaped into a safe region of Spain. When the war ended in 1939, he returned to Madrid and finished his law degree. He began spreading the work of Opus Dei and gave many retreats for laypeople, religious, and clergy.
Opus Dei began spreading through Spain, and after World War II it became an international organization. Members established institutions to serve the Church and society, such as hospitals and schools. It was formally approved by the Vatican in 1950 and today claims more than 80,000 members in more than 60 countries.
Josemaria moved to Rome to assist the growing international expansion of Opus Dei and to be a part of the conversation that was changing the Church in the era of the Second Vatican Council. He died on this date in 1975, and was canonized in 2002 after a miracle was confirmed in which a surgeon’s hands were healed from a career-ending disease through his intercession.
“With supernatural intuition, Blessed Josemaria untiringly preached the universal call to holiness,” said Pope St. John Paul II in his homily at the beatification of St. Josemaria. “Christ calls everyone to become holy in the realities of everyday life. Hence, work, too, is a means of personal holiness and apostolate, when it is done in union with Jesus Christ.”
St. Josemaria Escriva, you founded Opus Dei and helped Christians find holiness in everyday life—pray for us!
Image Credit: Image by Notre Dame alumnus Matthew Alderman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of his art. Used here with permission.