3rd Epiphany 2013, Not My Will

3^rd Epiphany

Matthew 8, 1-13

When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. And behold, a man with leprosy approached him, and kneeling down before him said, “Lord, if you are willing, you are able to make me clean.”

Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

And immediately he was cleared of his leprosy. And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one. But go and show yourself to the priests and offer to them the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony of your cleansing.”

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a Roman captain, leader of a hundred soldiers, approached him, pleading with him and saying, “Lord, my boy lies at home, paralyzed, suffering great pain.”

Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

The centurion answered, saying, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Just say a word, and my boy will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. If I say one word to this one—‘Go, ’ he goes, and if I tell another ‘Come,’ he comes. If I tell my servant ‘Do this,’ he does it.

Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, the truth I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great power of trust. And I tell you, that many will come from the east and from the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the darkness of [godforsaken] external existence, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go home.  Let it be done to you as you have believed.”

And the boy was healed in that hour.

3^rd Epiphany

January 20, 2013

Matthew 8: 1-13

If one wants to go to a place, one has to take steps to get there. Mere wishing, even strong desire, isn’t enough. One has to get on one’s feet and make one’s way, step by step. One has to walk to the place of the destiny meeting.

In today’s reading, the two men receive the healing they ask for because they each made their way to their destiny meeting with Christ. They walked not only the outer path to Him, but also an inner one. They each found their way to the place of paradox, an inner place where they could be both active and at the same time humbly receptive. The leper is sensitive to the Christ Will—if You are willing… he says. The centurion is humbly devoted to the potency of the Christ Word—just say a word, he says.

Both of them operate out of an archetypal health-bringing attitude; this attitude is to be cultivated in all human suffering— Christ Jesus, the divine human Himself portrayed it in Gethsemane—Not my will, but Thine be done.

For God Himself has a road in mind for humanity to walk—an evolutionary road toward a higher awareness of our divine human purpose. What role we as individuals have to play in the greater picture is not always obvious.

The leper wants healing for himself, so that he can rejoin his community. May we approach Christ to cleanse us of leprous thoughts, of contagious malignity, so that we do not bring our soul illness into the community. The centurion, well ordered into his human community, asks for healing for another. May we so care for those in our community that we too are active in approaching Christ on their behalf. 

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