Priest Message
06/28/2026
Sermon on The Fourth Sunday of Saint Matthew, 2026
In The Name Of The Father and Of The Son and Of The Holy Spirit, Amen!
My Dear Family in The Lord,
In His earthly activity of three years, Our Lord Jesus Christ, encountered, met different people from many categories of the society. Poor people, as well as rich people, educated and uneducated people, and many others.
Usually most of them came to Him, for their personal needs, some suffered from different diseases and infirmities, others were born blind or with other disabilities, some had people in their own families who were suffering. The main reason for all the people mentioned above, to
come and meet Jesus, was that they were in need for something and came to asked Him to do whatever their wish was.
People contacted The Lord, when them or their loved ones were ill and there was no hope for cure elsewhere, when they spent fortunes with many physicians and found no cure, they came to The Real Physician, The Only True Physician of our souls and bodies, Our Lord and God and
Savior Jesus Christ!
In today’s Gospel Lesson, however, we learn about a very unusual situation, and unique situation if you wish.
And that is, because a centurion came to Jesus and asked Him to heal his servant, who was lying paralyzed.
Now, before we move any further, let me explain to you, why I mentioned above, that this is a very unusual, or unique situation.
In Jesus’ contemporary society, 80% of the people were slaves. Being a slave, you had technically spoken no rights, or very little rights, close to none.
Slaves had no access to education, they were constantly at their masters’ orders, obedience, they could not make themselves “visible” in the society or speak out their voice.
Now, picture this, in that environment, an army commander, a Roman army officer, came to Our Lord to ask Him to heal his servant.
The commander was a centurion, that means that he was in charge of 100 soldiers, which means, that he, the centurion, was, somehow, part of the upper class of that society.
So, coming back to the centurion’s request to Jesus, that was probably something unheard and unexpected. A master, a slave owner, who was also a fairly rich person to ask that his slave to be healed? Usually the slave masters, did not their servants like that, they only used them fo work and if they were disabled or in incapacity to work, they just dumped them, because nobody wanted to take care of a person like that!
For this centurion to ask The Lord, to heal his servant, was something unthinkable. Nobody would imagine that.
This gesture, made Jesus to see, what a wonderful person the centurion was. A very good quality person and a high character. A man, who “did not lose his humanity”, because of his rank or position in that society, a man who showed compassion to a fellow human being, who was suffering, despite the fact that, that person was his own servant, a slave who technically speaking, was not even to be considered by many of his conationals. They did not even regard slaves as human beings, but only “instruments /utensils” if you wish, that are only to be use for work and nothing else!
That is why, this episode from Jesus’ Life was so unique and unusual.
And of course The Lord healed the centurion’s servant, because He was so impressed by this man. Jesus appreciated his humbleness, his humility, when the centurion told Him: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be
healed.” (Matthew 8:8)
Our Lord was also impressed of his (the centurion’s faith):” Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” (Matthew 8:10)
We know that shortly after this, the centurion became a follower of Christ and one of His many disciples and he died as a martyr. His day of celebration in The Orthodox Church is September 13.
May Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, through the prayers of His Mother and of all the saints, heal all our diseases of our souls and bodies and have mercy on us, for He Is The True Healer and Physician of our souls and body and Is always glorified with The Father and The Holy
Spirit, now and forever and unto the ages of ages, AMEN!!!!!!!
I can’t wait to see you in Church!
In Jesus Christ Our Lord, I remain, prayerfully yours,
+ Fr. Catalin

