Audacity and Deference

Third Sunday after Epiphany
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  For my first assignment as a priest, Bishop Boyea sent me to St. Thomas Aquinas parish in East Lansing.  And people still remembered the second pastor of that parish, named Msgr. Jerome MacEachin, but more lovingly referred to as Fr. Mac, though he had died in 1987.  His favorite hymn, a hymn also near and dear to my heart, was “O Lord, I Am Not Worthy,” whose first verse comes primarily from the second half of the Gospel passage we heard today.

    We hear this familiar passage about the centurion asking our Lord to heal His slave, but then objecting to our Lord visiting his house, and having faith that the Savior could heal even from afar.  And as I reflected on this the readings, the person of the centurion rose to the top as a model for our interaction with the Lord.
    The first thing that we note about the centurion is his audacity.  The centurion did not practice Judaism.  He did not belong to the Chosen People.  Perhaps he admired Judaism.  Perhaps he had simply heard about a wonder-worker who could heal people, so he came to ask for a favor.  But though the Messiah was not claimed as the Messiah for the Romans, the Roman soldier asked for a great miracle.  
    His audacity reminds me, and perhaps you as well, of the audacity of Esther in the Old Testament.  When praying about the situation of her people who had been condemned to ethnic cleansing by a government official looking for more power and to get rid of those who did not follow his every whim, Queen Esther basically prayed that God would remember His promise to protect His people.  She acknowledged that God could raise up His people in some other way, but asked God that she could help save her people from utter destruction.
    Are we as audacious as they?  We have more claim to God’s attention than a Roman centurion, because we are His adopted sons and daughters in Christ.  We even have more claim to God’s attention than Esther, because though she was a part of God’s Chosen People, the Jews, we are part of His Son, our Lord, through baptism.  And so, as beloved children of the Father, we can go to Him with a certain confidence that what we ask the Father for in the name of Christ will be granted us, as long as it is part of His will, and helps us grow in holiness.  The Redeemer promised that whatever we asked in His Name, the Father would give us.  When we pray, do we have that confidence?  Or is our approach,  “Lord, if it’s not too much trouble, and I know I don’t have any room to ask, but if you wouldn’t mind listening to the prayers of little, old me…”?  
    On the other hand, we also see the centurion display great humility and deference.  He doesn’t consider Himself worthy of a personal visit by the Lord.  A Roman soldier could command almost anything, and expect to be followed.  In fact, our Lord preached in His Sermon on the Mount, “‘If anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles.’”  This references the times that a soldier could demand that a Jew carry his gear for one mile, even if it was inconvenient for the Jew.  So the Roman soldier could have simply commanded our Lord to come to his house, and our Lord would have been expected to obey.  Instead, the Roman doesn’t even feel worthy to have the Savior go anywhere with him, so he demurs the visit.  
    We should also show this attitude in our prayer.  The Lord owes us nothing.  He has already given us more than we could dream in terms of salvation.  If He gave us nothing else than the opportunity to go to heaven, that would be a debt we could never repay.  Ours should also be the prayer from Luke, chapter 17: “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.”  

St. Gemma Galgani

    St. Gemma Galgani is another great example of this humility and deference.  St. Gemma was a virgin and stigmatist from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.  Even though she received mystical visions from our Lord, the Blessed Mother, St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, and her guardian angel, she would say, “Oh Jesus, do not let me do things that are above me.  I am good for nothing.  I do not know how to return all these great graces you have given me.”  She had been given so much, and yet did not expect anything from God.  
    This may seem like an odd balance to keep in prayer, but both are important.  We should approach the Father with confidence as His beloved children in Christ, but also recognize that God owes us nothing.  We know that whatever we ask the Father in the name of Christ will be given us, as long as it serves God’s plan and helps us grow in holiness.  We tend to favor one or the other.  Some may find it easier to approach the Father will confidence.  Some may find it easier to be deferential and not ask for anything because we cannot merit anything on our own.  In the end, that first verse of the hymn “O Lord, I Am Not Worthy” displays both attitudes of the centurion, audacity and humility, attitudes which are also important in our life: “O Lord, I am not worthy / That thou should’st come to me. / But speak the words of comfort, / My spirit healed shall be.”  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.