A Word for the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

Go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you: and his servant was healed that same hour (Mt 8:13).

Today, in the Gospel read at the Liturgy, Holy Church sends us to learn a God-pleasing faith and love for our neighbor—from a Roman centurion.

In the city of Capernaum, a certain centurion—a pagan or idolater by name, but a theologian by his own reasoning and by his own deeds—had a servant who fell gravely ill. Although, as we see from the centurion’s own words, he had many soldiers and servants under his command, he himself goes to plead for his sick servant before the almighty Physician of men, that He might heal him. Notice what a good master he was to those under him—simple, loving them as a father loves his own children; what a firm faith, with hope and humility, was in him. His servant fell ill, and he has recourse for help to the Lord, in whom he had come to believe, and says: «Lord! my servant lies at home paralyzed, grievously tormented. Jesus told him: I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said: Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof, but only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, but having soldiers under me, I say to one: go, and he goes; and to another: come, and he comes; and to my servant: do this, and he does it» (Mt 8:6-9). Notice again here how simple and how strong the centurion’s faith is in the Lord’s almighty authority: I too, he says, am a man under authority, yet all those under me and my own servants obey me and do what I wish, while You are the beginningless Master of creation; You made all things: all creation is subject to You; nothing is impossible for You: only speak a single word, and my servant will be healed. Having heard the centurion’s plea, «Jesus marveled, and said to those who followed Him: truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel» (Mt 8:10)—in Israel, that is, among the Jews, who had been brought up from childhood in the true faith; «and I say to you, the Lord goes on to say, that many will come from east and west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven; but the sons of the kingdom — that is, the Jews (and some future Christians) — will be cast into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion: go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour» (Mt 8:11-13). Here, then, is the great reward for the centurion’s faith! His servant was healed at once! Let us believe in the same way, and let us ask in the same way, for ourselves or for others. But let us note carefully what precisely made the centurion’s petition pleasing to the Lord: first, that it came from the centurion’s good and simple heart; second, that he, the centurion, asked the Lord with a firm, unwavering faith in His almighty word; third, that he asked the Lord from a loving heart, for he loved his servant, and in general those under him, as a father loves his children. Let us too believe in this way, and ask in this way, for ourselves and for others—I say it again—and we shall receive from the Lord what we ask, so long as what we ask for is good and beneficial for our souls and bodies, and not some mere whim.

Let us examine ourselves now and see: what is our faith like—is it like the Roman centurion’s? And is our simplicity of heart like his, is our love for our neighbors like the centurion’s love for his servants? Alas! Today many Christians have no faith at all, and Christian love has become a rarity. — More than that: many revile the faith itself, and the Church, and believers, asking why they believe, why they do not live as they, the unbelievers, live; why they too do not go to their ruin, as they do? So then, let me repeat: learn faith, brethren, from the centurion; learn to ask the Lord for everything as he asked Him for his servant’s healing; learn also to live in the same simplicity, the same humility, the same meekness and love, in which he lived. The Lord is now the same as He was then; He is now just as near to us as He was then; He is now the same almighty Wonderworker, Physician, Savior, Helper, as then. And He is now just as approachable to all who come to Him with faith and repentance as He was then; He is now the same rich Giver of every heavenly and earthly good, as He was then, and before that, and forever.

Let us always pray to God, for ourselves and for others, for every gift, in simplicity and freedom from malice of heart, with firm faith and hope, in heartfelt repentance, with humility and love: and we shall never be put to shame in our hope. See, we prayed to the Lord, all together, in church, a week ago, for the gift of rain for the parched, thirsting earth, and He, swift to hear and abundant in mercy, sent an abundant rain, which poured for several days, and gladdened the face of the earth, had mercy, and was bountiful to men and to their cattle. Let us thank Him with our whole heart for the fulfillment of our petitions, praying His Goodness that He would not forsake us in the future either, in whatever we shall ask of Him in our needs. And how many of these needs we all have! They are without number: our soul has its own many needs, and the body its own. But the needs of the soul are infinitely more important than the needs of the body, for the soul is immortal and the image of God, while the body is perishable; therefore we must ask the Lord, first, for the fulfillment of the soul’s needs—for instance, that He would multiply in us faith, hope, and Christian love, that He would grant us a pure heart, a broken and humble spirit, an unfeigned repentance, full of the fruits of good works—and only then for the granting of all that is needful for the body: health, favorable weather, an abundance of the fruits of the earth, cheapness in all the necessities of life, success in earthly affairs and undertakings needful for the common good and for one’s own, and the rest.

If we ask in this way, we shall never be put to shame in our prayer and in our hope.

Glory be to the Lord from all, forever. Amen.