Three Gospel writers record this healing — Mt 28:5-13 and Jn 4:46-54, in addition to Luke. All three place great emphasis on the cure being brought about at a distance by Jesus’ power to command obedience (from sickness-causing demons? from healing spirits?), and all three indicate that Jesus’ concern extends beyond the confines of Jewish religious nationalism.

There are only two healings from a distance recorded in the Gospels, and both are for foreigners. The other is the Canaanite woman’s daughter in Mt 15:21-28. Although Jesus seems to be restricting his mission now only to Israel, he makes it clear that he is paving the way for his followers’ mission to all peoples.

The centurion was obviously sympathetic towards the Jews (v 5) and respected the law forbidding a Jew to enter a Gentile’s house (v 6). This sort of respect is behind the adoption of his words as part of the invitation to communion in the Mass. But we have to be careful not to take Jesus’ display of power from afar as the norm. He usually accomplished healings by personal presence and contact, and is careful to exclude any hint of magic or mere mechanical action in his acts. For the centurion as well as for us, the "Lord, I am not worthy . . ." is an acceptance in faith of Jesus as he is present, not a desire to keep him at a distance.

After Solomon had built the temple and the Lord had manifested his presence in it (vv 10-13), Solomon uttered a solemn prayer of dedication. Only a small portion of the prayer as recorded here (vv 23-53) is actually his. Most of it can best be dated from the time of exile, after the destruction of the temple in 587 B.C.E. Today’s brief passage reflects the thinking of the Jews after the exile about the universalist dimensions of their religion. They began to realize that God chose them not just for their own benefit, but to be a source of salvation for all people. The temple (to be restored) was to signify God’s sanctifying presence for the whole world.

This shortest of all psalms calls on all humanity to praise God for his faithfulness. Response: "Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News."

The "other gospel" (v 6) was the message of the Judaizers — those Jewish Christians who felt that it was necessary to maintain the full Jewish law, including circumcision, in order to follow Christ and be saved. For them, it would seem, the way of Jesus was frosting on the cake, simply another way of being Jewish. And therefore, everybody, including Gentiles, who wanted to be Christian had to be Jewish first. Paul, however, was struggling to keep Jesus at the center of the Gospel. Jesus, not the law, is the full revelation of God’s love, and therefore the source of salvation. If Jesus is at the heart, Paul maintains, whether of not one personally chooses to follow the law of Moses makes little difference. Paul himself personally chose to keep the law; he never repudiated his Jewish identity. But he insisted that the law not be imposed on non-Jews as essential for salvation because that would impose unnecessary conditions on them, put the emphasis in the wrong place, and hinder their growth in faith in Christ Jesus.

1. Do we sometimes look to Jesus as a "super-genie" who can fulfill our wishes rather than as Messiah and Lord to whom we are faithful without conditions? How can the way you pray reveal your real attitude toward Jesus?

2. What sorts of people are some present-day equivalents of Judaizers in the Church?