3rd Epiphany 2017, Love Thaws

3rd 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.

3rd Epiphany

January 22, 2017

Matthew 8, 1-13

Today we hear of two different healings. The leper asks for his own healing. The centurion asks for the healing of another's suffering and paralysis. Furthermore, the centurion humbly asks for a healing at a distance. Christ responds, both with a healing and with warm praise for his trust.

We, too, like the centurion, are used to controlling certain things, making them happen. And at other times, especially when praying for another, we recognize that Christ can work at a distance.

In the Act of Consecration, we, like the centurion, are humbly aware of illness. It this case, it is the illness of our own soul and bodily constitution. Before communion, the priest acknowledges that Christ is entering a dwelling that is sick. And at the same time, there is humble trust in the power of Christ's Word of Healing.

Jane Delaford Taylor

Christ heals because He loves. He stands respectfully at a distance, waiting for us to approach. It is our trust in Him which allows Him to ease our suffering and paralysis of soul. 

As Theresa of Avila says,

And God is always there, if you feel wounded.  He kneels

over this earth like

a divine medic,

and His love thaws

the holy in us.*

St. Teresa of Avila, "When the Holy Thaws," in Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West --versions by Daniel Ladinsky

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