“Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am
not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to
come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed.” (Luke 7:1-10)
As I reflect
on this gospel today, what I find interesting is that these humble words, spoken
by a Roman centurion, weren’t actually spoken by the centurion to Jesus. This is because the centurion didn’t believe
he was even worthy of going to Jesus himself. Therefore, he sent some of his friends to
speak these words to Jesus on his behalf. In a real way, the friends of this centurion
acted as intercessors before Jesus. Jesus’ response was to express amazement at
the centurion’s faith. Jesus said to the
crowd who was with Him, “I tell you, not even in Israel have
I found such faith.”
And at that point, the servant was
healed by Jesus from a distance.
Most of the
time, if we have an important request to make of another, we do so in person. We go to the person and speak face-to-face. And though we certainly can go to our Lord in
prayer, face-to-face, person to Person, there’s something very humble about
bringing our needs to our Lord through the intercession of another. Specifically, there’s something very humble
about asking for the intercession of the saints.
Seeking the
intercession of the saints before our Lord isn’t done because we’re afraid of
our Lord or because He would be offended by us going directly to Him. It’s ideally done as an act of the utmost
humility. By entrusting our prayer to
those who are in Heaven, gazing upon the face of God, we do entrust our prayer
to God. But relying upon the
intercession of the saints is also a way of acknowledging that we are not
worthy, by our own merits, to stand before the Lord and bring Him our request. This humility can be difficult to understand
at times, but it’s important to try.
What is it
that you need to pray for in your life right now? As you call that to mind, pick a saint to act
as your friend and intercessor before God. Turn to that saint in humility and say a
prayer to that saint, admitting that you are not worthy of going to our Lord on
your own. Then entrust your petition to that saint and ask him or her to
present that prayer to our Lord on your behalf. This is something my mother taught me from a
very early age. My “go to” Saints are
Stephen and Gerard (whom I am named after), Saint James (I chose him as a
special intercessor at my Confirmation when I was 14 years old), and Saint
Joseph (because he is the patron saint of fatherhood) to pray with and for me
to God. And of course, Our Blessed
Mother as I pray the Rosary every day.
Praying to
our Lord, through the intercession of a saint, is a way of also saying that we
know Jesus’ response to us is pure mercy on His part. And the good news is that Jesus deeply desires
to shower His mercy when we humble ourselves before Him, especially by coming
to Him through the mediation of the saints.
It’s a good
practice to reflect upon the humility of the well-respected Roman centurion and
to try to understand the power of his humble approach by which he sent his
friends to Jesus on his behalf. We can
pick a saint or two or three in Heaven and ask them to go to our Lord on our
behalf and request that our Lord grant us the same humility and faith as the
centurion. Doing so will likely lead our
Lord to be “amazed” at our faith and humility also.
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