“Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof…” (Matthew 8:5-11)
Biblical reflections by Mauro Leonardi*, priest and writer
A centurion who wards off is a very strange reality for ancient Rome. They were usually rough and very aggressive soldiers; that a Roman would do it for a slave was something unthinkable at the time, because for the Romans slaves were servants and foreigners, as Jesus was for the centurion, inferior people to be subjugated and not even spoken to. And instead this centurion becomes humble, becomes prayerful and unworthy in his speaking of faith according to the declination of his work and his life and weaves the prayer that we all say before approaching the Eucharist and receiving Jesus.
From the Gospel according to Matthew 8:5-11
At that time, when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to meet him, begging him and saying: "Lord, my servant is at home, in bed, paralyzed and suffering terribly." He said to him, "I will come and heal him."
But the centurion replied: «Lord, I am not worthy that you enter under my roof, but of only a word and my servant will have healed. Despite being a subordinate too, I have soldiers under me and I say to one: "Go!", And he goes; and another: "Come!", And he comes; And to my servant: "Do this!", And he does it ».
Listening to him, Jesus surprised himself and said to those who followed him: «In truth I tell you, in Israel I did not find anyone with such a big faith! Now I tell you that many will come from the East and the West and will sit in canteen with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven ».
* Mauro Leonardi (Como 1959) has been a priest since 29 May 1988 and has lived in Rome since then. He spends many hours of his day as a priest and prefers building bridges rather than raising walls. For years he has been writing stories, articles, essays and books that revolve around the relationship between man and God. Author of the blogLike Jesus. Abelis (Lindau) is his latest novel. The volunteers of the Gionata Project thank him for wanting to share these reflections on the Word with us.
