As Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him with this request:  “Sir, my serving boy is at home in bed paralyzed, suffering painfully.”  He said to him “I will come and cure him.”  “Sir,” the centurion said in reply, “I am not worthy to have you under my roof.  Just give an order and my boy will get better.  I am a man under authority myself and I have troops assigned to me.  If I give one man the order, ‘Dismissed,’ off he goes.  If I say to another, ‘Come here,’ he comes.  If I tell my slave, ‘Do this,’ he does it”  Jesus showed amazement on hearing this and remarked to his followers, “I assure you, I have never found this much faith in Israel.  Mark what I say!  Many will come from the east and the west and will find a place at the banquet in the kingdom of god with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

 

Matthew 8:5 -11

 

Advent is a time of preparation.  It is intended to get us ready both for Christmas, the first coming of Christ, and for what is called the parousia, his second coming.  A question to be posed is whether we can be optimistic about the second coming.  An answer is derived, not from thinking about the future, but from looking to the past.  Our faith and hope in God are not based on abstract notions of his goodness but on a witness to his actions.  That witness comes to us from the teaching of the Church in her scriptures and her tradition.  We reflect on the actions of God in the past because we believe that God is consistent.  You can depend on him.  What God has done, God will do.

 

Did Jesus listen to the plea of the centurion?  Then he will listen to our prayers.  Did Jesus free the centurion’s servant from his painful paralysis which left him helpless?  Then Jesus will free us from the paralysis of sin which prevents us from advancing toward God and our heavenly home.  During the season of Advent the readings at liturgy will present important selections from Sacred Scripture.  Through these readings we will see that all of God’s actions show his wisdom and love.  We can depend on this good and wise God to prepare us to share in the glory of Christ when he comes again.

 

Father Charles Miller, from his book “As Rain That Falls.”