"The Healing Power of Jesus"
Dear
brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, today as we listen to the Words of the
Lord in the Scriptures, we are all recapped to have belief in the Lord, in Whom
alone is our redemption and magnificence, and through Whom we shall receive
true delight and happiness, true contentment and fulfilment, for the Lord is
our Courage and our Light, the Light of our salvation and our restoration. As
we enter into this season of Advent, we are all called to ponder on this truth
and transmit our attention to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour and King.
In today’s
first reading, which is taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we hear that
the Lord spoke to Isaiah concerning the coming of God and His salvation to His
people, Israel and all the countries, in the revelation that He has given to
Isaiah, then a prophet working in the empire of Judah. At that time, the land
of Judah was in chaos and far from its past grandeur days during the glorious supremacies
of King David and King Solomon. The northern kingdom of Israel had been crushed
by the Assyrians and their king, and its cities devastated, its population
mostly brought away into expatriate in far-off land.
Then
the kingdom of Judah was also confronted by the same Assyrians, just as they
had tolerated centuries of embarrassment and hardships under attack from their fellow
citizen and other great powers of the district. The kingdom and people of Judah
themselves would later on be crushed by the Babylonians over a century after
the time of the prophet Isaiah, due to their continual defiance of God and denial
to repent from their sinful ways. But as we heard from the words of the
Scriptures today, that despite all these, God actually still loved His people.
He
loves all of us and although we are sinners, He does not scorn us, but rather
our many sins. The fact that He still sent His prophets, heralds and many
others to His people, including that of Isaiah and speaking the words that we
have heard today, the promises of the coming of God’s glory and kingdom, the
coming of His salvation and days of rule over all the nations are evidence
enough that God cares for all of us, without omission.
Brothers
and sisters in Jesus Christ, that is an important truth that we must realize as
we enter into this holy period and time of Advent, a time for refinement and
reorientation of our lives, a time for selectivity and self-introspection that
we may find our path in life going forward, ever closer to God. We must have
faith in Him and hold on fast to that hope and faith that we have in Him, and trust
that in God alone is our salvation, and that He alone is our Hope and our longing,
through our atonement and the forgiveness of our many sins.
In today’s
Gospel reading we have heard earlier on, we should be stimulated by the faith
of the army centurion or the colonel whom the Lord met in His way. The army
centurion had heard about the Lord and His wonders and power, and being an army
officer, he likely must have been a Roman, whom as an officer was an even more respected
member of the civic. As a high-ranking personality, he had no need to humble
himself but inspite of this he humbled himself and knelt before the crucified
Jesus and yet that was closely what he did before the Lord and everyone.
He
asked the Lord to heal his much loved servant, who was very revolting to the
point of death, and he believed wholeheartedly that the Lord has the authority
to heal his servant. His faith was such that he did not need to see or witness
the Lord performing the healing, and embarrassing himself before the Lord by
saying that he was unworthy to welcome the Lord in his house, likely due to the
common faith among the Jews at the time that one should not enter the house of
a unfaithful or risk becoming contaminated, the army officer asked the Lord to
say and to command that everything is to be as He said.
This
was a genuine faith that the army centurion had in the Lord, having faith in
Jesus without even seeing the action, as compared to many of the Pharisees and
the teachers of the Law who had seen many of the marvels and yet, still rejected
to believe and obstinately opposing the Lord and His works. The Lord then admired
his faith and ordered that everything be as He said, and true enough, later on
the army centurion’s servant was healed, and it was likely that after this, the
army centurion’s faith in the Lord became even stronger.
In the Gospel Jesus heals one servant from disease. One centurion came to Jesus and pleaded in front of Jesus for his servant. Jesus said, “I will come and heal him”. But centurion said, “Lord I am not worthy that you should come under my shelter but say the word and my servant shall be healed”. Now the point is to reflect is the humbleness, meekness and generosity of centurion for Israel that he came to Jesus for his servant. The first thing Jesus thought is how one master came for his servant because it is said that master doesn’t love his servant and servant doesn’t love his master. By his faith Jesus was shocked and he appreciated the centurion’s faith and he said; I have not seen such a faith in Jerusalem. Look, one master can love his servant we being near to each other we don’t love even our neighbor. We don’t take care of others. “humbleness is the thing which is arduous among us”. Now a day it has become catch 22.
There should be a juxtapose between our integrity and humbleness,
so that we may receive appreciation, blessings and rewards from
God and as centurion’s experienced. Therefore, the word of God
invites us to be “humble steadfast in faith”. Thus, we receive the
blessings from the Lord, healing as the servant received and
appreciation as the centurion attained from Jesus Christ.
Brothers
and sisters in Jesus Christ, are we capable to have the same faith as indicated
by the army centurion? Are we prepared and competent to commit ourselves to the
Lord wholeheartedly in the same way, to believe in Him and the Hope that He has
brought unto us, and not be diverted by the many invitations found in this
world? We are all challenged to have profound faith in the Lord and to determine
our path in life as we enter this holy season of Advent, so that we may truly
be ready to welcome the Lord, not just for Christmas, but for the time when He
comes again one day, to claim us all as His own.
Let all of us make our Advent season to be a blessed and most fruitful one, by committing ourselves afresh to Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the perfect expression of God’s Love in our midst. Let us pursue the Lord wholeheartedly and sincerely repent from our sinful ways, abandoning our wicked and evil habits and yearnings, turning away from those and be prepared to accept our most loving God and Father. May God bless us always and may He remain with us, now and forevermore. Amen.
Amen
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