“Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee” (Matt. 8: 13 KJV)
This verse reminds me of another verse from St. Matthew’s Gospel, “verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done” (Matt. 21: 21). WHich brings to mind another, in which Jesus more or less states that to whom is given much, even more will be given (Matt 25: 29).
Faith is a lot like that, we start out with very little in our Christian lives, but if we use our faith, and nurture it, more will be given. If we are content with that faith we receive when we become Christian, we will be unable even to do the Christian’s equivalent of the fig tree miracle; that is, not go to church regularly, or even do the smallest act of love towards another, because without our faith in Christ being active in us, we are incapable of even the smallest good. In the words of one saint “every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from you, the Father of lights”.
The Gospel reading today is all about faith; indeed the centurion displays an almost Christian attitude to the poor and sick, even before he calls on Christ, as he asks for Christ to heal his servant – most likely, a slave (Matt. 8: 6). One will note that the KJV uses the word servant when talking of Onesimus in the Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon; Onesimus was definitely a slave (Philem. 16).
Yet though the centurion has an attitude of care and compassion towards his servant or slave, he also has an attitude of humility to his superiors sadly lacking in many Christian’s today. Humility is one of the virtues of Christianity, as talked of in the beatitudes: blessed are the poor in spirit and the meek (Matt. 5: 3-5).
The centurion tells Jesus that he is not worthy of Jesus ministering to his servant in person, but trusts in Jesus mere word (Matt. 8: 8). And Jesus, the Word, (John 1: 1), sends forth that very word and heals the man, because of the extent to which the centurion, not a Christian, had faith in his healing word (Matt. 8: 13).
How many Christian’s have such faith? Do we ourselves have such faith? yet why should we not? If the centurion could have his servant healed, why shoudl we not turst that same word of our Saviour, given to us in the Gospel, that if we increase our faith, and have an active faith, we should even throw mountains into the sea?
