12/2/2019 ADVENT APPETIZER

Posted on Dec 2, 2019 by

[The centurion said in reply,
“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my servant will be healed.
For I too am a man subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;
and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes;
and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”]  (Mt. 8:8-9)

Who’s in charge of your life? Jesus or you?

In our Gospel today a centurion approaches Jesus with a problem—one of his  servants is sick.  Jesus offers to visit the centurion‘s house and cure his servant, but the centurion protests on the grounds that he is unworthy to receive Jesus under his roof.

From his explanation it seems the centurion is afraid that he, a person of authority, is ordering Jesus to do something just as he orders his soldiers and servants. The centurion humbly recognizes that he is not in charge, but Jesus is. It’s Jesus’s prerogative to heal and fix things, not his.

Do we? Do we recognize that Jesus is in charge or have we taken that authority and prerogative upon ourselves?  What situations in your life do you need to “hand over” to Jesus so that He can heal and fix them?