Fourth Sunday after Pentecost; Holy Mother of God of Perpetual Help; Our Venerable Father Sisoes the Great.
Romans 6:18-23; 8:28-39; Hebrews 9:1-7; Matthew 8:5-13; 5:1-16; Luke 10:38-42;11:27-28.
Read Matthew 8:5-13
In both cinema and literature, setting is much more than just a backdrop; it’s a crucial element that significantly shapes the narrative. It influences character development, plot progression, themes, mood, and even the audience’s interpretation of the story. Setting can reveal character worldviews and symbolize deeper meanings within the story.
“As he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him.” Capernaum is not incidental to today’s gospel. After being driven out of the synagogue in Nazareth, “where he had been brought up” (Luke 4), Jesus made Capernaum “his own town” (Matthew 9). It was the location of some of his most revealing miracles, like the healing of the paralytic (Mark 2), “that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” But Jesus also rebuked it for the unbelief he encountered there: “And you, Capernaum, if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.” (Matthew 11)
Capernaum was on the periphery of Judaism, on an ancient trade route, populated by Jews, Romans, and other Gentiles. It was also an outpost of the Roman Empire – two peripheries overlapping. The very nature of that city and Jesus’s intentionality in basing his Galilean ministry there created the circumstance in which the centurion came forward to Jesus as he entered it. It takes one to know one, and the centurion recognized authority in Jesus – “Not even in Israel have I found such faith.”
Why are we located where we are? What is it about our places of work, worship, shopping, recreation, and rest that may be significant for connection with others for God’s glory and their good? Prayerful openness to new things with the people we overlap with can be a blessing in our lives.