Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded to have faith in the Lord, our God, in everything that He has done for us, in loving and caring for us, in showing us His ever patient and good providence, so that all of us may gain righteousness and salvation through Him. All of us are reminded as always today, to be ever more committed and faithful to the Law, commandments and the path that God has shown us and taught us. Without God, all of us are truly nothing, and we cannot achieve anything on our own if God had not guided and helped us, through His blessings and providence, in every moments of our lives. That is why we should always do our best to follow the Lord and to entrust ourselves to Him, just as the army centurion in our Gospel reading today showed us.

Beginning with our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to St. Timothy, the Apostle wrote to his protege speaking and urging all the faithful to pray for all those in power and entrusted with authority, that every one of them ought to remember and focus their attention on the Lord, their God, the one and only Mediator of the New Covenant which He Himself has established with every one of us. St. Paul reminded all the faithful once again of everything that God had done for those who are beloved to Him, all of us, by sending unto us all His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Divine Word, to be incarnate in the flesh, so that by becoming the Son of Man, He might show us the perfection of God’s love and glory, and lead us all once again to His loving Presence, and reconcile us fully with Him.

All of us have been separated and cast out of God’s loving presence due to our sins and wickedness, by our disobedience against His Law and commandments. But this does not mean that God does not love us anymore. On the contrary, His love and commitment to us, and to the Covenant that He has established with us, is ever wonderful, enduring and great, and His sending unto us of His Son, manifesting His love and compassion, His merciful outreach and attention to us highlight to us the ever enduring and persistent love He has for each and every one of us, sinners and delinquents, who have disobeyed Him and rebelled against Him. Much like a father who patiently cared for and loved his children, thus the Lord our God has done the same towards each and every one of us.

Unfortunately, many of us are often not appreciative of the love, kindness and grace that God had given to us, and we place our trust rather in our own strength and power, in our arrogance and greed, in our various worldly means and attachments, which prevented us from realising that we have walked down the wrong path, because we have always followed the whim of the many worldly temptations and desires present all around us. That is why many of us persisted in our errors and faults, in not doing what God has taught and commanded us all to do in our lives, and instead, did what we desired to do, in our many pursuits for worldly pleasures and satisfactions, turning a deaf ear to the Lord’s call and reminders for us to turn back towards Him and His path towards righteousness and salvation.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the great faith that a high ranking Roman military officer had shown to the Lord, in his faith and trust in the Lord, in entrusting to Him all things, even the life of his beloved and dear servant. That Roman military officer or centurion was also highly respected in the community because of his generosity and charitable actions, in helping to build the local synagogue, and in general we can conclude that he was truly a very upright and worthy man, who was although a Roman, and therefore largely a pagan in the eyes of the Jewish people at the time, but his actions and righteousness put even most of the Jews and their religious leaders at that time to shame. Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because he had such great faith in the Lord, just like some other examples shown in the Gospels, more than those self-righteous fellows that the Lord criticised for their lack of faith and hypocrisy.

That Roman military officer, being highly ranked and respected at that time, could have told or even commanded the Lord Jesus to come to his place to show His miracles and healing in getting his servant to be healed. But, he humbled himself and showed his great faith and trust in the Lord, telling the Lord by the words that I am sure we are all very familiar with, ‘I am not worthy that You, the Lord, should enter under my roof. But only say the Word, and my servant would be healed and made whole.’ These are similar words to what we always say at every moments right after the Most Holy Presence of Our Lord, the Eucharist, is shown unto us, right after the Agnus Dei, and just before we are about to receive the Lord in Holy Communion. Those words that we utter are reminders for us, that the Lord has come unto us to heal us and to help us to be reconciled with Him, and by His grace we have been made whole again.

And rightly, we should be inspired and touched by the good example shown by the Roman military officer who humbled himself before the Lord and showed such great faith in God, that he believed even without needing to witness the miraculous works being done in person. In order to understand this even better, we should also contrast his response and attitude to those of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law who frequently demanded that the Lord should perform more miracles and wonders, signs and other amazing deeds before them, stubbornly refusing to believe in Him despite having witnessed so many of those miracles and wonders with their own eyes. All the signs and the words that the Lord had spoken, all pointed to Him being the Messiah, the Holy One of God, sent into this world, and yet, those same religious elders and influential leaders allowed their ego, pride and arrogance to blind and prevent them from recognising the truth before their very own eyes and senses.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we reflect upon the words of the Scriptures and what we have just discussed, let us all strive to renew our faith and trust in God, allowing Him to lead us in our path and journey towards Him. Each and every one of us must remember that we are truly so fortunate that God has loved us so much and has always ever been patient towards us, in reaching out to us with His ever generous mercy and compassion. We should therefore follow the examples of the faith of the Roman centurion, and do our very best in living our lives righteously and worthily at all times, reminding one another to always be committed in following God at all times. May God be with us always, and may He continue to empower us all in every opportunities and at every moments throughout our lives, now and forevermore. Amen.