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Sunday, July 11, 2010

The Centurion

Prompted by my devout and wonderful wife, I recently bought an audio version of the Catholic Bible on Audible* and downloaded to my Droid. I've been listening to it now and again as I drive. I've been deeply affected by listening to it and it's had some wonderful effects in my daily life. I might blog on those later, but there are several stories that, heard rather than read, have made me wonder about the people involved. The story of the Centurion is one such
When he went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. 'Sir,' he said, 'my servant is lying at home paralysed and in great pain.'

Jesus said to him, 'I will come myself and cure him.'

The centurion replied, 'Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under authority myself and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man, "Go," and he goes; to another, "Come here," and he comes; to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.'

When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, 'In truth I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found faith as great as this...(T)o the centurion Jesus said, 'Go back, then; let this be done for you, as your faith demands.' And the servant was cured at that moment.
The thought that immediately jumped into my head was this: What did the Centurion think and feel when he heard that Jesus had been crucified? The guy was a Roman, not a Jew. I'm not sure how the Romans rotated their troops, but it could have been that he was on a temporary deployment in Judea where he discovered the Son of God. That alone would be enough to blow your mind, but to find out later that he had been crucified would be shocking. I could just see the fellow using his connections within the army and within the Judean populace to find out just what happened.

I wonder what he did after that.

I doubt he was anyone's fool.

* - I love Audible. LOVE IT.

7 comments:

  1. I think he felt a thousand times what I did when I heard Terri Shiavo had been killed.

    My America. Had murdered a woman. By dehydration.

    I imagine he became a saint, one way or another.

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  2. ligneus4:54 AM

    Just to show my ignorance I didn't know there was a Catholic Bible, how does it differ from The King James?

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  3. Foxie, your comment took me aback. I hadn't thought of it in such a personal sense. That was a great insight. Thanks.

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  4. ligneus, I truly have no idea how the Bibles are different. I only know that ours is superior.

    ;-)

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  5. Ligneus-

    The books of Tobias, Judith, Baruch, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, First and Second Machabees and some extra stuff in Esther and Daniel.

    King James Bible is a (beautiful, limited number of books, Protestant) translation, the Catholic Bible is a canon-- that is, a list of books. (There are some Catholic Bibles that use the KJ style-- "our Father, who art in Heaven" type language. It's beautiful.)

    That link is a doozie with more than you ever wanted to know. ^.^

    More simply:
    The KJV moved a lot of stuff to the "Apocrypha," (the "deuterocanonical" books) and later that was removed. (Sometime after 1611.) Catholic authorized Bibles have these books still in place.

    KT-
    don't know that I can take credit for it; just popped into my head the second I read it, and it fit enough to make my eyes water.

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  6. ligneus7:27 PM

    Thanks Foxfier, I'll check it out when I have more time.

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