Saturday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Lamentations 2:2,10-14,18-19 | Psalm 73:1-7,20-21 | Matthew 8:5-17
When Jesus went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘my servant is lying at home paralysed, and in great pain.’ (Matthew 8:5-6)
We all know how the story continues: Jesus offers to go to the centurion’s home to cure his servant, whereupon he responds with such a display of faith that Christ Himself is astonished, so profoundly that it’s enshrined in our own response to the Ecce Agnus Dei (“Behold the Lamb of God”): “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
But is anyone astonished that this even happened in the first place? What kind of man is this, that pleads for the life of a servant? A righteous man, that’s who.
How many employers would do even half as much for their suffering maids?
How many bosses would regularly look to the welfare of their subordinates, beyond just a year-end office makan session?
How many of us would offer pleasantries and thanks to the many people who serve us each day?
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
For some weeks now, I’ve been fighting my own introversion by making a point to greet bus drivers on boarding, and shout a “Thanks for the ride!” before alighting. Their responses have been astonishingly uniform: Smiles and nods at the start and end of my journeys.
Ditto the folks who clean the tables I sit at.
Ditto the folks who make my food and drink.
All this thankfulness also helps me maintain a light mood throughout the day, for as Paula Abdul once sang: You give love, you get love, and more than heaven knows.
Lord, just as you were astonished and delighted by the faith of the Roman centurion, help us to astonish and delight others with genuine displays of gratitude, and thereby share the love that You share with us each day. Amen.