Daily Reflection Monday of the First Week of Advent

This week the church enters the season of Advent, the time of waiting in joyful anticipation for

the coming of Jesus Christ. In Advent we wait with hope-filled expectation that the promise of

the Beatitudes will be fulfilled. The theme of Advent is expressed joyfully in the hymn “O Come

All Ye Faithful” (Adeste fidelis). While we wait we go out to meet the Lord.

The centurion in today’s gospel dramatizes this sort of waiting. He went out to meet the Lord in

desperation, hoping to find healing for his servant. In his encounter with the Lord he uttered a

marvelous statement of faith: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; only say

the word and my servant will be healed.” He asks for just a word. Jesus was amazed by the faith

of this man, a Gentile, and says that in all of Israel he has not found such faith. It is one more

indication that salvation is reaching beyond the borders of Judaism to all the world.

The centurion’s statement is echoed in our Mass, in the prayer we recite just before receiving the

Eucharist. Here we acknowledge that we are not worthy, having been distracted from the way of

the Lord by sinful inclination. However, we are made worthy by the word spoken to us by God.

In moving to the table of the Lord we follow Jesus Christ, who calls us from the darkness of

division to the banquet of reconciliation.