Monday, September 16 : Saint Augustine

When the gospel was read, we heard Jesus praise our faith in an act of humility. When the Lord Jesus, you remember, promised he would go to the centurion’s house to heal his servant, the man replied, “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and he will be healed”. By calling himself unworthy, he showed he was worthy to have Christ enter, not within his walls, but within his heart… There would, after all, have been no great benefit if the Lord Jesus had entered within his walls, and had not been in his bosom. Christ, the teacher of humility by both word and example had, you may remember, sat down in the house of a certain proud Pharisee called Simon (Lc 7,36f.). And though he was sitting in his house, there wasn’t anywhere in his heart where the Son of man might lay his head (Lk 9,58)… But into this centurion’s house he never entered, yet he took possession of his heart… So this man’s faith is discerned and praised in an act of humility. He said, “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof” and the Lord said, “Amen I tell you, I have not found such great faith in Israel”… The Lord had come to Israel according to the flesh, that is to the Jews, there first to seek the sheep that were lost (Lk 15,4)… We, as human beings, can assess the faith of human beings – from the outside; he, who could look inside, whom no one could deceive, bore witness to the faith of this man, and on hearing his humble words, he gave him a clean bill of health.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team