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Readings for Saturday Morning 6/27/2020

Reading 1 LAM 2:2, 10-14, 18-19

The Lord has consumed without pity
all the dwellings of Jacob;
He has torn down in his anger
the fortresses of daughter Judah;
He has brought to the ground in dishonor
her king and her princes.

On the ground in silence sit
the old men of daughter Zion;
They strew dust on their heads
and gird themselves with sackcloth;
The maidens of Jerusalem
bow their heads to the ground.

Worn out from weeping are my eyes,
within me all is in ferment;
My gall is poured out on the ground
because of the downfall of the daughter of my people,
As child and infant faint away
in the open spaces of the town.

In vain they ask their mothers,
“Where is the grain?”
As they faint away like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
And breathe their last
in their mothers’ arms.

To what can I liken or compare you,
O daughter Jerusalem?
What example can I show you for your comfort,
virgin daughter Zion?
For great as the sea is your downfall;
who can heal you?

Your prophets had for you
false and specious visions;
They did not lay bare your guilt,
to avert your fate;
They beheld for you in vision
false and misleading portents.

Cry out to the Lord;
moan, O daughter Zion!
Let your tears flow like a torrent
day and night;
Let there be no respite for you,
no repose for your eyes.

Rise up, shrill in the night,
at the beginning of every watch;
Pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your little ones
Who faint from hunger
at the corner of every street.

Responsorial Psalm 74:1B-2, 3-5, 6-7, 20-21

R. (19b) Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.
Why, O God, have you cast us off forever?
Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
Remember your flock which you built up of old,
the tribe you redeemed as your inheritance,
Mount Zion, where you took up your abode.
R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.
Turn your steps toward the utter ruins;
toward all the damage the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
Your foes roar triumphantly in your shrine;
they have set up their tokens of victory.
They are like men coming up with axes to a clump of trees.
R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.
With chisel and hammer they hack at all the paneling of the sanctuary.
They set your sanctuary on fire;
the place where your name abides they have razed and profaned.
R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.
Look to your covenant,
for the hiding places in the land and the plains are full of violence.
May the humble not retire in confusion;
may the afflicted and the poor praise your name.
R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

Alleluia MT 8:17

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ took away our infirmities
and bore our diseases.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 8:5-17

When Jesus entered Capernaum,
a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”
He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”
The centurion said in reply,
“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my servant will be healed.
For I too am a man subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;
and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes;
and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,
“Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,
and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven,
but the children of the Kingdom
will be driven out into the outer darkness,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
And Jesus said to the centurion,
“You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.”
And at that very hour his servant was healed.

Jesus entered the house of Peter,
and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.
He touched her hand, the fever left her,
and she rose and waited on him.

When it was evening, they brought him many
who were possessed by demons,
and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick,
to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet:

He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.

Lord, I Am Not Worthy

“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” Matthew 8:8

This familiar phrase is repeated every time we prepare to go to Holy Communion. It’s a statement of great humility and trust from the Roman Centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant from a distance.

Jesus is impressed with this man’s faith stating that “in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” This man’s faith is worth pondering as a model for our own faith.

First, let’s look at his humility. The centurion acknowledges that he is “not worthy” to have Jesus come to his home. This is true. None of us are worthy of such a great grace. The home that this spiritually refers to is our soul. We are not worthy of Jesus coming to our souls so as to make His dwelling there. At first this may be hard to accept. Are we really not worthy of this? Well, no, we are not. That’s just the fact.

It’s important to know this to be the case so that, in this humble realization, we can also acknowledge that Jesus chooses to come to us anyway. Recognizing our unworthiness should do nothing other than fill us with great gratitude at the fact that Jesus comes to us in this humble state. This man was justified in the sense that God poured His grace on him for his humility.

He also had great trust in Jesus. And the fact that the centurion knew he was unworthy of such a grace makes his trust all the more sacred. It’s sacred in that he knew he was unworthy but he also knew that Jesus loved him anyway and desired to come to him and heal his servant.

This shows us that our trust in Jesus must not be based on whether or not we have a right to His presence in our lives, rather, it shows us that our trust is based on our knowledge of His infinite mercy and compassion. When we see that mercy and compassion, we will be in a position to seek it out. Again, we do this not because we have a right to it; rather, we do it because that’s what Jesus wants. He wants us to seek out His mercy despite our unworthiness.

Reflect, today, on your own humility and trust. Can you pray this prayer with the same faith as the centurion? Let him be a model for you especially every time you prepare to receive Jesus “under your roof” in Holy Communion.

Lord, I am not worthy of You. I am especially not worthy of receiving You in Holy Communion. Help me to humbly recognize this fact and, in that humility, help me to also recognize the fact that You desire to come to me anyway. Jesus, I trust in You.

Source of content: mycatholic.life

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Fr. Sebastian
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