The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Aris Martin SVD (Chicago, USA)
24th Week in Ordinary Time
As a teacher, I’m thrilled by this type of exam question: “Which does not belong to the group?” It is like multiple choice, but the students should pay attention to the subtle differences among the choices that when they do so, they have a point. Paying attention to the differences – that is what we are trained to do. But in today’s readings, the things that unite are more powerful than those which divide us. Most often, they are hidden behind the “sub-stance” (the things under).
In the Gospel, while differences are clear or even irreconcilable, the things that unite are powerful that they bring about healing. There is the servant who is dying and the master (centurion) apparently feels that the death of his servant will be his death as well. So he sent servants to Jesus who must also have felt what dying meant on hearing the news.
Imagine the feeling of dying that united these three different persons: the servant, the centurion and Jesus. This was confirmed when the centurion said: “I am not worthy to have you under my roof… just say the word…” What deep faith, not superficial. It is a total trust in things which unite us, things under us that lead to the great miracle of the day.
The cancer of our world today is individualism and only when we unite ourselves can we be made whole again. St. Bellarmine, a good teacher, once put it, “Peace and union are the most necessary of all things… and to maintain these we have to bear one another’s defects.”
I hope one day our exam will be, “Which can possibly belong to the group?” Only then will we realize that in God “everything belongs.”
