Homily | June 27, 2026 | Real Faith Means Trusting Christ’s Authority Over Mine | (Episode 176)

There's one sentence in today's gospel that has echoed through the church for two thousand years.

We hear it at every mass.

Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

Those words come from a Roman centurion, a pagan, a soldier, not a rabbi, not a priest, not even one of the chosen people.

Yet Jesus has something astonishing.

In no one in Israel have I found such faith.

Imagine hearing that.

Standing there are the scribes who have spent their entire lives studying scripture, the Pharisees who know every commandment, the religious leaders who can quote the law by heart.

And yet Jesus points to this Roman officer and says, This man, this one, understands faith better than all of you.

What made his faith so extraordinary?

Well, if you notice that he never says, Jesus, I know you can heal my servant.

Instead he explains why he knows.

He says, I too am a man under authority.

That's an interesting phrase.

Why?

Because he doesn't say I am a man with authority.

He says, I am a man under authority.

He understood something profound.

The reason he processed authority was because he first submitted to authority.

A Roman centurion commanded roughly one hundred soldiers.

When he gave an order, everyone obeyed.

But those orders carried weight only because he himself was obedient to Caesar.

His authority flowed from the authority from above him.

And then he looks at Jesus and he realizes something no one else seems to understand.

Jesus does not merely just perform miracles, Jesus speaks with the authority of God Himself.

The wind obeys him.

Demons obey him, disease obeys him, death itself will obey him.

So the centurion concludes, if sickness obeys your authority the way soldiers obey mine, then you don't even need to come to my house.

Just speak it.

Only one word.

That's remarkable faith.

I wonder if we have reduced faith to something much smaller.

Many people think faith means believing that God exists.

Well, even the demons believe God exists.

Faith is much more.

Faith means trusting God's authority over my life.

It means believing that when Christ speaks, he knows better than I do.

Even when I don't understand, even when his teaching is difficult, or even when it costs me something.

Now, the first reading shows us what happens when that authority is rejected.

Again, we've been seeing that this week Jerusalem lies in ruins.

The temple has been destroyed.

Children are starving, families are devastated.

It is one of the saddest chapters.

Why?

Because for generations God's people listened to false prophets instead of the Lord.

Here from the first reading, it says, Your prophets had for you false and specious visions.

They did not lay bare your guilt.

In other words, they preached comforting words instead of truthful words.

They told the people what they wanted to hear instead of what they needed to hear.

That always ends in disaster.

The lesson is a relevant one for us today.

There are plenty of voices telling us to trust ourselves, to follow your heart, to create your own path, to you know truth, you can create your own truth.

Do whatever makes you happy.

Well, the problem is that our hearts can deceive us.

Our culture changes every few years.

Public opinion rises and falls like the tide.

Only Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever.

That's why we listen to him, not because his words are easy, but because his words are always true.

There's one final detail that I love.

Jesus says to the centurion, as you have believed, let it be done for you.

Not as you have hoped or not as you have wished, but as you have believed.

Faith opens the door for God's power.

Every time every time we come to Mass, just before Holy Communion, we repeat the centurion's words.

Perhaps today we should slow down and say them with meaning.

Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

Those words, may they never become routine.

May I may never pass over them.

Because if we truly believe them, then we will we're saying something extraordinary.

What we're saying is, Lord, I trust your authority more than my own.

Speak your word, Lord.

Heal not only my body but my soul.

Order my life according to your wisdom, because I know that only your voice leads me to freedom.

That's the faith that amazed Jesus, and that's the faith he's still looking for you today.

Amen.