Today’s readings place before us two very different scenes.
In the first reading, Jerusalem is in ruins.
In the Gospel, people are being healed.
One is full of sorrow.
The other is full of hope.
Yet together they teach us something important about prayer, suffering, and faith.
The Book of Lamentations is one of the saddest books in Scripture.
Jerusalem has fallen.
The Temple has been destroyed.
The people have been carried away.
Everything they thought was secure has collapsed.
The city sits in mourning.
The prophet looks upon the devastation and weeps.
What is especially tragic is that the disaster did not come without warning.
The prophets had spoken.
God had called His people back.
Again and again they were urged to repent.
But they would not listen.
Now the consequences have arrived.
Yet even in the midst of sorrow, the prophet gives a remarkable command:
“Cry aloud to the Lord. Let your tears stream down like a torrent day and night.”
In other words:
Do not run away from God.
Run towards Him.
That is not always our instinct.
When people suffer, they can become angry with God.
Or distant from God.
Or silent before God.
The prophet says the opposite.
Bring your grief to Him.
Bring your tears to Him.
Bring your wounds to Him.
Pour out your heart before Him.
That is exactly what we see in the Gospel.
The centurion comes to Jesus with a problem he cannot solve.
His servant is dying.
He is helpless.
And so he turns to Christ.
What makes the centurion remarkable is not only his concern for his servant.
It is his faith.
He says:
“Lord, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured.”
Jesus is astonished.
Not by wealth.
Not by power.
Not by status.
But by faith.
The centurion understands something many people miss.
He understands who Jesus is.
He recognises authority.
As a soldier, he knows what it means to give an order and have it obeyed.
And he realises that Christ possesses an authority unlike any other.
An authority over sickness.
An authority over suffering.
An authority over creation itself.
That is why one word from Christ is enough.
One command.
One act of divine power.
And the servant is healed.
Then Matthew gives us several more examples.
The sick are brought to Jesus.
The possessed are brought to Jesus.
The suffering are brought to Jesus.
And Christ heals them.
Again and again.
Notice what people do.
They bring their problems to Jesus.
Their weakness to Jesus.
Their suffering to Jesus.
Their need to Jesus.
The tragedy is that we often do the opposite.
We try to carry everything ourselves.
We worry.
We struggle.
We become overwhelmed.
And only then, perhaps as a last resort, do we pray.
The centurion teaches us a better way.
Bring it to Christ first.
The prophet teaches us the same lesson.
Bring it to Christ first.
St Cyril of Alexandria spent much of his life defending the truth about Jesus.
He fought against errors that reduced Christ to merely a holy man or a great teacher.
Cyril insisted that Jesus is truly God and truly man.
Why did that matter so much?
Because only if Christ is truly God can He save.
Only if Christ is truly God can He heal.
Only if Christ is truly God can He forgive sins.
Only if Christ is truly God can His word have the power we see in today’s Gospel.
The centurion understood this better than many people around him.
He recognised that Christ’s authority came from God Himself.
And because he believed that, he trusted completely.
Perhaps that is the challenge for us today.
Do we really believe that Christ has power over our lives?
Do we really believe He can heal what is wounded?
Do we really believe He can forgive what is sinful?
Do we really believe He can strengthen what is weak?
Because faith is not pretending life is easy.
Jerusalem was still in ruins.
The centurion still faced suffering.
The saints still endured trials.
Faith is bringing those trials to Christ and trusting Him with them.
And so the readings leave us with two beautiful examples.
The prophet teaches us to pour out our hearts before God.
The centurion teaches us to trust completely in God’s power.
Together they show us the path of every saint.
Not self-reliance.
Not despair.
But confidence in Christ.
The Lord whose word heals.
The Lord whose mercy restores.
And the Lord who never turns away those who come to Him in faith.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 