Not Above

DAY'S SAINTS
Feast of the Precious Blood
Blessed Assunta Marchetti, Nun

Gospel Mt 8:5-17
When Jesus entered Capernaum,
a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
"Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully."
He said to him, "I will come and cure him."
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."
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,
"Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,
and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven,
but the children of the Kingdom
will be driven out into the outer darkness,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."
And Jesus said to the centurion,
"You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you."
And at that very hour his servant was healed.
Jesus entered the house of Peter,
and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.
He touched her hand, the fever left her,
and she rose and waited on him.
When it was evening, they brought him many
who were possessed by demons,
and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick,
to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet:
He took away our infirmities
and bore our diseases.

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If Jesus was not above suffering for ungrateful and indifferent people, what should be the conduct of His followers?

All of us have been initiated into His cross and His passion-life, so that we are subject to service for the Lord when He asks. We may decline, but blessed are those who reject sin and are grateful to the Lord for the opportunity of atoning, for our  own sins, and those of others, even those who caused us harm.

If you hear His voice, be not indifferent to Him, but rise from your bed and forsake your slumber to be attentive and present to the Lord in a world where so few remember Him.

Do not think that you can not do great things for the Lord because you are lowly and ordinary. If He commissions you, you can cause the hills to sink into the earth, and make the stars rise in their course at night, because you are a vessel of His power.

The ways in which He causes events to unfold is inscrutable by design; therefore, those who serve Him without thinking, from the love and generosity of their heart are blessed now, and will enjoy blessings in eternity.

Be at peace in yourself, and the world will be at peace, and only those who  troubled themselves will be troubled. 

Dictators may tremble in fear, yet what they fear will not be their undoing, but they will meet their appointed end regardless of the precautions they take.

Likewise, we are all appointed to give an accounting of our existence to the Lord when He asks. Let Him be kind and gentle; love Him and serve Him and do His Will, untroubled by considerations, for things evolve without our knowing how, and peace is planted to grown in the garden of us all.