Today we focus on the most essential aspect of the Christian life: faith in Jesus. We looked this week on the life of St. John the Baptist, who helps us to understand our life’s own mission. We pondered the words of Jesus as He taught us look after our own souls first before we presume to aid another, to preach the Gospel with love and to entrust obstinate hearts to the King of Hearts, to live lives of Christian integrity and beware of false prophets, to allow our love of God to be the foundation and source of all we do. St. Peter and St. Paul taught us to love the truth, and today the most unlikely teacher of all will give us a lesson in faith: a pagan.
But not just any pagan: a Roman centurion, the strong arm of the enemy of God’s people in the time of Jesus. Yet his faith in Jesus’ ability to heal his beloved servant was so certain that even Jesus marveled at it! How the faces of His apostles must have burned when He said to them, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” No one. In fact, so impressed have the followers of Jesus been since this encounter that when we are at Mass, kneeling before the great mystery of the Eucharist, we repeat the centurion’s words: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
Jesus goes on to let His followers know that they shouldn’t be all that surprised at His declaration: many will come from all corners of the world to enjoy heaven with the great Patriarchs of the Covenant, while there will also be many of those who belong to the Covenant who will not be there. Why? Faith in Jesus; that seems to be the bottom line here. “…as you have believed, let it be done for you.” Those of the Covenant were doing the right things, but works alone is insufficient for salvation.
However, neither is faith alone enough for salvation; faith in Jesus is absolutely essential but it is part of a living faith that is accompanied, as we reflected on earlier in the week, by fruitful living. He shows us this truth when He heals Peter’s mother-in-law; He heals her, and she recognizes the significance of that healing in faith, immediately rising to serve Him: this service is not merely hospitality, but the fruit of her own conversion. News seemed to be spreading, and soon many others were bringing the sick and possessed to Jesus for healing and deliverance: why? Because they had come to believe in Him by what He did. Just as works without faith will avail us little (Matthew 7:21-23), “What good is it…if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? …faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14, 17).
The centurion had incredible faith, such that even Jesus was amazed; what ultimately came of that man we do not know. But as we have seen in the lives of St. John the Baptist, St. Irenaeus, St. Peter, St. Paul, and Peter’s mother-in-law, faith is the soul of the Christian life that animates a whole body of works. If we are to live this gift faithfully, then let us live it fully, putting our faith to work in all that we do, that we might one day hear those precious words, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).