The Gospel for the memorial of Saints Cornelius Pope and Cyprian Bishop Martyrs is taken from Luke 7th, chapter 1:10. When Jesus had finished all his words to the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die, and he was valuable to him. When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and save the life of his slave. They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying, he deserves to have you do this for him. For he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.

And Jesus went with them. And when he was only a short distance from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, 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. For I too am a person 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 at him, and turning, said to the crowd following him, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. When the messengers returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. The Pharisees were Jesus toughest audience in a sense.

They refused to open their heart to who he was and what he could do. And the thing about this story is that when Jesus is encountering someone who understands authority, a man who was filled with authority as a centurion, he tells people to do things and they do it. He recognizes this gift in Jesus. Jesus has authority to accomplish anything he wants. That’s the faith that God wants in all of us. He couldn’t find it in the Pharisees, but he found it in someone who understood the power of being in authority.

Take this time to reflect on these thoughts. And now we’ll close with a prayer. Foreign the closing prayer. Father, you’ve made promises to each of us that we are saved, we are loved, and we are in a work of building a kingdom. Help us to believe in what you say, that this is who we are, this is what will take place. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.