Today’s Readings:
“Lord, I am not worthy….”
Some social
scientists may decry the fact that we are living in the “Age of Entitlement.” There are certain elements of US society—often
the young, often the rich, but others as
well—who believe that certain benefits are owed to them simply because of who
they are.
A number of
television commercials play to this type of thinking by telling the viewers
that “you deserve” this beer or hair care product or car. To which I find myself thinking, “And just
what have I done to deserve it?”
Perhaps it’s
a matter of semantics that some would consider trivial, but when I use the word
“deserve,” it implies some reciprocity for a good deed or a good job done. So while I believe that people in Ethiopia
have a fundamental right to adequate food and safe drinking water, I probably
wouldn’t agree, as some promoters might say, that they “deserve” those
things. I hope I’m making myself
clear. Some people should receive assistance
not because they “deserve” it but because they have a basic right to it.
The
centurion in today’s gospel would have been entitled to certain privileges
because of the rank he had attained. By
rights, he probably could have made certain demands on Jesus. But this Roman official had two laudable
insights: 1) he knew how authority worked and 2) he recognized that Jesus could
exercise that authority over disease even from a distance. Though we have never known his name, his
faith and humility are etched in the annals of Church history as we echo his
words at every Mass: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof….” Lord, I do not deserve a soul-healing; I am
not entitled to it; but I hope your mercy will provide it.
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