Advent through Christmas -- 2007
Sunday Gospels
Monday, December 3, First Week in Advent
The Scriptures read as Sunday Mass are not arbitrarily chosen by the pastor or parishioners. The Church has a three-year cycle of set readings.
In this cycle, Year A centers on Matthew’s Gospel, Year B on Mark, and Year C on Luke. (Passages from John are interspersed in the sequence of Gospels every year.
Weekday Gospels
The weekday Gospels, however, are usually the same every year. Since there are many more weekdays than Sundays, they cover a greater part of all four Gospels.
Generally speaking the weekday Gospels use passages that are never read on Sundays.
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This year, these readings will use the Gospel passages assigned for the weekday Masses. This will give many people a chance to reflect on and pray passages of the Gospels that they have seldom heard proclaimed or preached about during the Liturgy of the Word.
The chapter and verse references for the Gospel passages in the second post for each day cite the entire passage assigned for the Mass each day, not simply the excerpt at the top of the daily post.
Advent through Christmas -- 2007
Monday, December 3, First Week in Advent
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.” Matthew 8:5-11
As the above passage continues, Jesus will marvel at the faith of the Gentile centurion. He will then send the centurion home with the assurance that his servant is healed. Matthew will note: “And the servant was healed at that very moment.”
The centurion had no doubt that Jesus could heal from a distance. It was only a question of whether Jesus would choose to heal the servant at all. When Jesus says to him, “Go. Let it be done for you according to your faith,” the centurion fully believes that the servant is indeed healed.
It might be worthwhile to think about the level of my faith. When I pray and ask God to do something, and it doesn’t happen, what kinds of thoughts cross my mind?
• Do I wonder if God could really do it.
• Do I believe that God could, and wonder why God wouldn’t, and decide that it’s more or less because of my own sinfulness?
• Do I believe that God could, and trust that God didn’t because there’s more to it than I can see?
Don’t answer too quickly.
Talk to the Lord about it.
Spend some quiet time with the Lord.
