The gospel for Saturday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time is taken from Matthew 8th chapter. 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. Centurion said in reply, lord, I am not worthy to have you enter 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 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 to you. At that very hour his servant was healed. Now 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 them.

When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons. And he drove out the spirits by words and cured all the sick to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet. He took away all infirmities and bore our diseases. How are we supposed to interpret the miraculous things that Jesus did? To turn to him when we have something like a disease and say, I want you to take care of this for me. Please feel.

And all of a sudden we get up and we don’t have a fever and we’re not coughing any longer. That’s so oversimplified. What he’s really saying is, when you ask me to help you to be who you’re called to be, I will always do that. And if you’re enduring something that’s important, I will give you the courage and the strength to endure it. I’m not going to take away the things that are there in your life to help you to grow and change. But if you doubt that you’re growing and changing through the things you suffer, you’ll lose a tremendous gift.

It’s called hope and acceptance. That’s the key that Jesus wanted his people to have. If you ask him to take care of you, he will. It’s up to him to choose how. Satan Sam Closing prayer Father, you’ve told us that our faith is a gift, but it has to be believed in. Our faith is what we need in order to be able to experience the way you are healing us.

Bless us with trust in the way you work and know that that way will bring us to life. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Sam.