Gospel: Luke 7:1-10

 

Chapter VII of the gospel of Luke helps us to receive the call addressed to the pagans to adhere to faith.  

 

The first aspect that emerges from the reading of the passage is the situation of suffering in which the centurion finds himself: the grave illness, the imminent death of a dear person.  

 

But we soon see that the Lord enters into this situation, coming to share in it, to live in it with His loving presence. The words confirm this truth: “asking Him to come”;  “and Jesus went with them”; “He was only a short distance.”  It is wonderful to see this movement of Jesus who moves near to him who calls Him, who searches for Him and who asks for salvation. This is how Jesus acts with each one of us.

 

It is also very useful to enter into contact with the figure of the centurion. “When he heard about Jesus”.  He received the announcement, he heard the good news and held it in his heart.  He did not let it escape and did not close his ears to life. He remembered Jesus and now he goes in search for Him. 

 

Twice does the centurion carry out his action: first sending the elders of the people to Jesus, authoritative figures, then by sending his friends.  Luke uses two different verbs and this helps us to understand better that in this man something took place, a state of passage:  he became more and more open to the encounter with Jesus.  He wants Jesus to come, to be near, to enter into his poor life, to come and visit his pain.