St. Matthew begins the public ministry of Jesus with the long discourse we call the Sermon on the Mount. After the Sermon Jesus is depicted as exercising a healing ministry. He cleanses a leper, heals the centurion’s servant, restores Peter’s mother-in-law, and drove out the evil spirits by a word and cured all the sick in Capernaum. The miracles serve to validate the teaching he had just completed. We might be tempted to pine for such a healing ministry in our day. The Church instead instructs us to imitate the centurion and surrender our need to be in control and trust God’s plan: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my soul will be healed.”
