"O Lord, I am not worthy to receive you." The translators of the liturgy probably used this phrasing because it nicely combines the sense of reception as of a host to a guest and reception as of receiving the Eucharist. But it is from this scripture passage that they derive the prayer that is so central to our liturgy and to our lives.
We are not worthy of ourselves. But the interesting fact of Catholic Doctrine is that we are made worthy not of ourselves, but by God's love for us. The compassionate love of a father makes what is dirt and clay, what came from nothing, worthy to receive God in His fullness when we partake of Holy Communion.
Lord, I am not worthy to receive you -- but only say the word and I shall be healed! Healed of what? Healed, in part, of my unworthiness. We have a saying in America -- You are what you eat. I read that and with respect to Holy Communion, I pray, "May it be so!" Because in receiving Holy Communion, we receive God Himself. And we receive God, "under our roof," the roof to this body that serves to keep us in, and so many things -- including God, if we should choose -- out.
St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that the only thing we can do on our own is reject God; even accepting God requires God's grace. So it is well to remember and to pray with this centurion -- "Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed."
May it be so for all of us who love Him.
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