Gospel: Mathew 8: 5-17

 

The Gospel today continues the description of the activity of Jesus to indicate how He put into practice the law of God, proclaimed on the mountain of the Beatitudes. 

 

The centurion is a pagan, a foreigner. He does not ask for anything, he only informs Jesus, telling him that his servant is sick and suffers terribly. Behind this attitude of people in regard to Jesus, there is the conviction that it was not necessary to ask things of Jesus. It was sufficient to communicate the problem to Him, and Jesus will do the rest. An attitude of unlimited trust! In fact, the reaction of Jesus is immediate: “I will come Myself and cure him!”

 

The centurion did not expect such an immediate and generous gesture. He did not expect that Jesus would go to his house. Beginning with his own experience of “head” he gives an example to express his faith and the trust that he had in Jesus. This reaction of a foreigner before Jesus reveals what the opinion of the people was in regard to Jesus. Jesus was a person who could be trusted. 

 

The official admired the reaction of Jesus and Jesus admired the reaction of the official. The message of Jesus, the new law of God proclaimed from the top of the mount of the Beatitudes is a response to the deepest desires of the human heart. The sincere and honest pagans like the centurion and so many others coming from the east and the west saw in Jesus the response to their yearning and they accepted it. The message of Jesus is not, in the first place, a doctrine or morals, nor a rite or a series of norms, but a deep experience of God which responds to what the human heart desires.