I. WhenJesus came down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. They had not been able to follow Him when He went up. And the first who now came was a leper. The disease of this poor creature had prevented him from hearing the Saviour’s long sermon on the mount. Let it be noticed that he is the first person specially named as being cured. The second was the centurion’s servant; the third, St. Peter’s mother-in-law, who was sick of a fever at Capharnaum; the fourth were those brought to Christ as being troubled with evil spirits. By His word He cast out those evil spirits, and at the same time healed all them that were sick. And behold a leper came and adored Him. Properly after preaching and doctrine comes the occasion for a miracle, that the power of the sign might confirm in the hearers the truth of the teaching that had gone before.
II. And the leper said: Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. The leper prayed the Lord to have the will, for he doubted not but that He had the power.And Jesus, stretching forth His hand, touched him, saying: I will; be thou made clean. And as soon as the Lord put forth His hand the leprosy departed. Let us remark how humble and unboasting is the Lord’s language. The leper had said, if thou wilt; the Lord answered, I will. The leper, Thou canst make me clean; and the Lord, Be thou made clean. Most Latin readers, misled by the identity of form in that language, read Christ’s answer as if it were: I will to make thee clean. This is wrong, for the sentences are separate. First comes the expression of volition, I will, then the command, Be thou made clean. And Jesus saith to him: See thou tell no man. Was there any need to tell what his body showed? But go, show thyself to the priest. There were divers reasons why Christ should send him to the priest. First for humility’s sake, that he might show reverence to God’s priest. Then there was a command of the law that they, who were cleansed from leprosy, should make an offering to the priests. Moreover, that when the priests saw the leper cleansed, they might either believe in the Saviour or refuse to believe; if they believed, that they might be saved, and if they believed not, that they might have no excuse. Lastly, that He might give no ground for the accusation too often brought against Him, that He was unobservant of the Law.
III. Then the centurion came to Jesus, beseeching Him and saying: Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grievously tormented. And Jesus saith to him: Iwill come and heal him. And the centurion making answer, said: Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. No one could accuse our Lord of an inordinate desire after honour, because He promised the centurion that He would go at once and heal the servant. It was on account of the faith, humility, and modesty which He saw in the centurion, that He at once and most generously granted his request. The centurion showed his faith in believing that He could heal a man sick of the palsy, who was still an unbeliever. He showed his humility, thinking himself unworthy to receive Jesus into his house; and his modesty was shown by his recognising the Divinity of Jesus hidden under the veil of His humanity. This centurion knew that it would be useless for him to follow the example of unbelievers, and to accept as true only what he could see with his bodily eyes, if he did not at the same time believe in the Divinity of Jesus, that he could not see. This prudence made him say: I also am a man subject toauthority, having under me soldiers; and I say to this, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. By these words he wished to express his belief that Jesus could convey His intentions to His angels, and through them perform whatsoever He would deign to fulfil Himself.
IV. When Jesus heard this He marvelled, and said to them that followed Him: Amen, I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel. Jesus marvelled, because the centurion recognised the majesty of the Son of God made man, and His power to heal the sick, and to deliver the possessed from the influence of the devil, either through His word only, or through the agency of His angels. He praised the centurion’s faith as being greater than that of the Jews, His contemporaries, but did not speak of the patriarchs and prophets who had lived before Him. Under the figure of the centurion He wished perhaps to indicate the Gentiles, whose faith surpassed that of the children of Israel. I say to you, He added, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Since the God of Abraham is the Creator of heaven, and the Father of Jesus Christ, it follows that Abraham and all the nations which with him believe in Jesus, the Son of the Creator, will sit in the kingdom of heaven. In this also is contained the meaning of what we have said, namely, that the faith of the centurion represented the Gentiles, who would believe with him were the Gospel preached to those who dwell in the east and the west. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness. The unconverted Jews, who, until the conversion of the Gentiles, had God for their King, were the children of the kingdom. Their darkness was interior; yet we may say that, since they left the true Light and were rejected by God, they were also surrounded by exterior darkness. (Note: see Romans 11).
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