Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 28, 2025
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.
I have many vivid memories of sitting in wooden church pews every weekend as a kid, half-paying attention. Like many children, I attended Mass because my parents took me, not because I fully understood what was happening. Most weeks, I was just waiting for it to end.
Yet as I grew older, something started to shift. I couldn’t describe it then, but I began to feel like there was something important happening, something bigger than myself that I wanted. As I started to pay attention and try to learn all the intricate parts of a Mass, I one day heard a liturgical response that has stuck with me: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.”
It’s a line that we Catholics say at all Masses to prepare for communion, and it’s sometimes easy to just say without even pausing to think about it. But even as a kid, that line struck me. It was honest, and it didn’t try to pretend that we have it all together. It acknowledged something I subconsciously understood—that we’re imperfect, and yet somehow still loved.
In today’s gospel, we hear the origin of those words. A Roman centurion, who was an outsider and part of the occupying force, comes to Jesus with striking faith. He knows he’s unworthy, but very humbly approaches Jesus on behalf of his servant, an action that would likely have been ridiculed by his fellow Romans.
Jesus is amazed, not because the centurion was powerful, but because of his deep trust and vulnerability. He sees that this man understands what so many miss: that faith isn’t about status or a life of perfect virtue, but about showing up with nothing to offer but belief. That’s what stays with me. The centurion doesn’t try to prove himself; he simply trusts that Jesus can heal what he cannot. And maybe that’s where faith begins: not in worthiness, but in willingness to surrender to God.
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
St. Irenaeus was a bishop who so thoroughly refuted a certain strain of heresy in his region that his words were used throughout the Church to guide the truth that has been handed on to us today.
He was born in 125 and was educated by St. Polycarp, who personally knew and learned from St. John. Irenaeus was sent as a missionary to what is now Lyons, France. Trading routes were leading to the development of that region, and the Church was growing there. Irenaeus was assigned to work as a priest under the bishop, St. Pothinus.
The region fell under persecution, and Irenaeus was chosen to travel to Rome to deliver a letter and speak with the pope about a matter. While he was away, Pothinus was killed, along with many of the other priests who worked with him. Irenaeus stayed in Rome until it was safe, and later he returned to Lyons as its new bishop.
He was bishop there for some 20 years, and expanded the Church in the area. He even spoke the native Celtic dialect instead of his own Greek. Certain deviations of the faith were spreading through the area, and Irenaeus was determined to refute them and guide his flock with the true faith. He learned every variation of the heresy and then explained all of the distorted beliefs in a large work that also described the true faith that came to him from the apostles and is contained in Scripture.
These heresies were from a strain of thought called Gnosticism, which seemed attractive to people because it claimed to offer them secret wisdom that was not available to everyone. Irenaeus said that he was determined to “strip the fox.” His work in defense of the faith spread rapidly and was used everywhere to refute gnostic belief, which was a major threat to the early faith.
It is believed that Irenaeus was martyred, but there is little evidence for this. He died around the year 202, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Irenaeus, you defended the early Church from secret sects and ensured the truth of our faith today—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Irenaeus is available for use under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Last accessed March 19, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
