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SERMON 15 On the Centurion1 ou are about to hear today, brothers, how a centurion of a Roman cohort became a leader in the Christian army. And deservedly so because he began to teach before he believed. Jesus came, it says, to Capernaum. A centurion came up to him and addressed him with this request: “Lord, a servant-boy of mine lies at home paralyzed and badly afflicted.” And Jesus said to him: “I shall come and cure him.” The centurion said in reply: “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only speak the word, and my boy will be healed. I, however, am a man placed under authority, and I have soldiers under me, and I say to this one: ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another: ‘Come,’ and he comes; and I say to my slave: ‘Do this,’ and he does it” (vv.5–9). You see that before he engaged in the task of discipleship the centurion had obtained a position as teacher; for he shows the manner of petition, he provides the standard for believing, he makes known reasons for faith, and he furnishes patterns of the virtues, although he has not yet begun the discipline of Christian learning. 2. A centurion came up to him with a request of him. This is a matter of being wise, not of making a request. A servant-boy of mine lies at home. As a master he pleads the case of the servant. Truly the centurion, who has changed his earthly pay into a profit one hundred times2 as great in heaven, also has raised servitude in the earthly military up to divine dignity. Lord, a servantboy of mine lies at home. He who calls him “Lord” faithfully confesses his own servitude. And how is it that this centurion who thus acknowledges his Lord has dared to declare that the ser70 1. Mt 8.5–13. 2. There is a wordplay here between centurio and centenarium. vant is his own, as though unaware that the property of the slave belongs to the master? Or is he ignorant about ordinary things while teaching things so age-old and profound? A servant-boy of mine: “I call him mine, because he is lying down; if he were yours, Lord, he would not be lying down. The prophet attests to this when he says: ‘Come, now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord’:3 You who ‘stand,’ not ‘lie down.’ Your servants stand, the servants of human beings lie down. May my servant-boy who is lying down rise in order to be yours. He is mine because he is paralyzed; may he now be healed so as to be yours. He is mine because he is badly afflicted; so that he be yours, may he now be in no pain. “Lord, it is not fitting for your servants to be subjected to evils. The pain of your servants is an injury to you. The force of evils should not take hold of your servants. Your servants, although they suffer evils, do not suffer them for punishment, but undergo them for crowns; for them adversities are not causes of distress, but causes of victory. Servants of human beings are the ones who suffer evils unwillingly, because their masters are unable to help them in their desperation. But you, O Lord, whom the powers serve, whom cures obey, to whom healing remedies submit, how will you regard him as your servant while you see that he is the slave of such diseases? “Your goodness is known among the wicked, even the godless acknowledge your kindness, and outsiders proclaim your mercy: am I to say that he is yours, even though your benevolence does not seek him out as he lies ill? He lies at home and is badly afflicted. And so, the magnitude of the affliction does not allow me to bring him and present him to you, lest the infirmity of the servant, if made public, cause him both pain and shame.” 3. The centurion moved the Judge by making so great and heartfelt an appeal, and he was so effective that the Lord of heaven himself willed to go to his servant. I shall come, said Christ, and cure him. Brothers, the centurion did not coerce the SERMON 15 71 3. Ps 133 (134).1. [3.142.197.212...

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