Monday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 443

They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying,

"He deserves to have you do this for him,

for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us."

Today's passage from the Gospel of Saint Luke  displays several different kinds of human relationship:

1. A centurion and his valuable slave
2. the centurion and the Jewish elders
3. the elders and Jesus
4. the centurion's deference to Jesus
5. Jesus' response to the centurion's message and
6. Jesus' and the servant.

First, there is slavery. In this twenty-first century we find the very idea repugnant. No one should dare suggest slavery was anything but evil. The United States in particular still suffers the memory of slavery. Not only was our system more barbaric; (American slaves had virtually no rights.) we were the last nation in the western world to give it up. Legally, it persists today only in some African countries. Slavery is an insult to the servant and the master; both are dehumanized by its violence.

And yet, in the gospel accounts of this story, rendered by Luke with similar passages in Matthew and John, the owner seems to have affection for the dying man. Matthew's centurion says he is "suffering dreadfully." Saint John changes the story radically: the centurion is a royal official and the suffering man is his son. What Luke calls "valuable" appears to be great affection between a superior and an inferior. It is so attractive that Jewish elders appeal to Jesus in Luke's account; and in all three accounts Jesus responds.

Secondly, we find our centurion using his connections to save his valuable slave. If anyone wants to defend the Catholic tradition of patron saints, this passage might help. In the Roman Empire, "It's not what you know; it's who you know." Ambitious persons with the necessary skills advanced their careers by courting powerful persons and influential families. This particular centurion, despite his warrior profession, cultivated contacts with the Jewish religion. They said of him, "He loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us." They certainly owed him the favor of appealing to Jesus.

The Protestant dismissal of patron saints ignores that important dimension of human relationships. There is patronage in government, academia, entertainment, churches and business; why should it not appear in our spiritual life? Most employers want to know more about a potential employee than her or his skills. Is he honest, reliable, adaptable? Who has worked with him and can recommend him? Who-you-know still counts for a lot in a technocratic meritocracy. 

Third, the elders come to Jesus. They recognize him as a healer and rabbi. He has a different way of looking at things; he has generated many enemies; his disciples don't exactly recommend him or themselves. But we can work with him. We owe our friend the centurion that much.

Four, the centurion refuses to allow Jesus to enter his house. Combat Veterans understand this. The centurion has killed people and, as a soldier, he knew they were not bad people. He has ravaged villages, women, children and livestock. He has also sent his own soldiers into fatal situations. Sometimes he knew they would never return, and they knew it too, as they looked at him one last time. Could such a man ask a holy man for a favor? He dared not. Even asking the Jewish elders to help was too bold. He could not endure Holiness to enter his house. 

And he understood Jesus' authority like few others. They had never met and would never meet but they understood each other. They were men under authority. 

Sometimes I have invited Veterans who suffer alcoholism and drug addiction to remember their obedience to their officers. The love of God is not very different. 

Five: We must notice Jesus' surprise. He did not expect to find faith, friendship or understanding among gentiles. Growing up in an occupied country, he had been told from his earliest years that Roman soldiers were evil and centurions were demons. Jesus had his own prejudices against Romans and gentiles which he set aside when he met them face to face. There is a lesson here for people like you and me who have strong feelings about people we have never met. 

Finally, Jesus heals the slave whom he never met. He heals although he is not physically present. You and I pray for healing all the time, for ourselves and others. We don't have to see him to believe, as he reminded the Doubting Thomas. 

This gospel shows us the complex web of human relationship in which the Incarnate God lived. This is not a story about "Jesus and me" or "my personal savior." He was a Jew living in a world dominated by gentiles, a man among men and women and children, an authority among many authorities. He could work with people and their systems, with compassion for their scruples. He was never "the lone ranger," an isolated individual. To know Jesus is to know his people, including the Church, the Jews, slaves and other despised persons. To know Jesus is to move as gracefully in this world as he moved among us.