Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs

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."

Catholic spirituality understands that "grace builds on nature." They are not opposed to each other. Grace finds welcome in nature as water finds its place in a cup; they are designed for each other. 

The gentile centurion in today's gospel does not have the same access to grace as his Jewish friends, but he can use the resources he has, especially his authority as a centurion in an occupied region, and money. In the same Gospel (Saint Luke) Jesus speaks of money:

I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

By building the synagogue for the Jews, this gentile can hope to find welcome in eternal dwellings. 

The Lord continues that useful advice:

The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.

If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?

The centurion has proven himself trustworthy by his friendship of the Jewish elders and his financial support of their synagogue. Like many educated people of that time, he apparently admires the monotheism of the Jewish religion. Though it is demanding and in many ways uncompromising, it cultivates among believers a single minded integrity and essential reliability. Believers mean what they say and say what they mean; their word is better than money in the bank. As the American rabbi, scholar, and author Abraham Joshua Heschel said of the monotheist,

God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance. A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.

The centurion not only admires that character of Judaism, he cultivates it within himself and, presumably, among his soldiers. As the rabbis tell Jesus, "...he deserves to have you do this for him." 

There are many places in the Gospels, especially that of John, where we encounter the all-or-none demands of God. But we also find in the Bible many passages that include a "great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue." (Revelation 7:9) The Gospel's describe the Lord's many encounters with people who don't seem to belong to him or his people, but he is hostile only toward those who oppress others with their adamantine opinions. The greatest testimonies of his divinity come from a gentile centurion and a skeptic. 

What is certain is that no one but God will determine -- on the last day and not before -- who is worthy and who is not. In the meanwhile, we let our judgments about people remain in silence until they evaporate and are lost forever.