20th Sunday After Pentecost - Go Thy Way, Thy Son Liveth
In today’s Gospel, an officer of the imperial army comes to Christ to save his son’s life, and when the miracle for which he asked takes place, he believes in our Lord with his whole house.
Our Lord saved the son of the ruler from death, that He might give to him and to his whole family the life of faith. This miracle ought to help to increase our faith in Christ, by which God has freed us from the sickness of sin and from eternal death which is its result. St. Gregory says,
"The man who asked for his son’s cure, doubtless believed, since he came to seek our Lord, but his faith was not without defect, since he asked for the bodily presence of Him who is spiritually everywhere. Had his faith been perfect he would doubtless have known that there is nowhere where God is not. Although he believed that He to whom he had come had the power to heal, he did not think that He was visibly present with his son at the point of death. Our Lord, whom he implores to come, shows him that He is already where he asks Him to go; and He, who at will had created all things, restores health to the sick boy by His word alone.”
The Communion psalm shows how God blesses those who serve Him and comes to their assistance in all their troubles. Finally, the Introit, after acknowledging that the chastisements which have weighed heavily on the Hebrews are due to their own unfaithfulness, prays God to glorify His name by dealing with His own people “according to the multitude of His mercy”. Let us make these thoughts our own, acknowledging that our misfortunes have been brought about by our unfaithfulness in following the divine will.
Source: Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, OSB, 1945, adapted and abridged.
