For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Serm., 62, 4: This centurion was of the Gentiles, for Judaea had already soldiers of the Roman empire.
By declaring himself unworthy, he showed himself worthy, not indeed into whose house, but into whose heart, Christ the Word of God should enter. Nor could hehave said this with so much faith and humility, had he not borne in his heart Him whom he feared to have in his house. And indeed it would have been no great blessedness that Jesus should enter within his walls, if He had not already entered into his heart.
If I who am under command have yet power to command others, how much more Thouwhom all powers serve!.
Matthew therefore intended to state summarily all that passed between the centurion and the Lord, which was indeed done through others, with the view of commending his faith; as the Lord spoke, “I have not found so great faith in Israel.” Luke, on the other hand, has narrated the whole as it was done, that so we might be obliged to understand in what sense Matthew, who could no...
Ord.: Thou are able without Thy bodily presence, by the ministry of Thy Angels, to say to this disease, Go, and it will leave him; and to say to health, Come, and it shall come to him.Haymo: Or, we may understand by those thatare set under the centurion, the natural virtues in which many of the Gentiles were mighty, or even thoughts good and bad. Let us say to the bad, Depart, and they will depart; let us call the good, and they shall come; and our servant, that is, our body, let us bid that it submit itself to the Divine will.
Spiritually interpreted, the Gentiles are the sick in this world, and afflicted with the diseases of sin, all their limbs being altogether unnerved, and unfit for their duties of standing and walking. The sacrament of their salvation is fulfilled in this centurion’s servant, of whom it is sufficiently declared that he was the head of the Gentiles that should believe. What sort of head this is, the song of Moses in Deuteronomy teaches, “He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the Angels.” .
Also he therefore says that it needed only a word to heal his son, because allthe salvation of the Gentiles is of faith, and the life of them all is in the precepts of the Lord. Therefore he continues saying, “For I am aman set under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.”
The Lord seeing the centurion’s faith, humbleness, and thoughtfulness, straightway promises to go and heal him; “Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.”.
As we commend the centurion’s faith in that he believed that the Saviour was able to heal the paralytic; so his humility is seen in his professing himself unworthy that the Lord should come under his roof; as it follows, “And the centurion answered and said unto him, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldestcome under my roof.”.
The thoughtfulness of the centurion appears herein, that he saw the Divinity hidden beneath the covering of body; wherefore he adds, “But speak the word only, and my servant will be healed.”
The Lord having taught His disciples on the mount, and healed the leper at the foot of the mount, came to Capharnaum. This is a mystery, signifying that after the purification of the Jews He went to the Gentiles.Haymo: For Capharnaum, which isinterpreted, The town of fatness, or, The field of consolation, signifies the Church, which was gathered out of the Gentiles, which is replenished with spiritual fatness, according to that, “That my soul may be filled with marrow and fatness,” Hence it is said, “When he had entered into Capharnaum the centurion came to him.”.
This centurion was the first-fruits of the Gentiles, and in comparison of his faith, all the faith of the Jews was unbelief; he neither heard Christ teaching, nor saw the leper when he was cleansed, but from hearing only that hehad been healed, he believed more than he heard; and so he mystically typified the Gentiles that should come, who had neither read the Law nor the Prophets concerning Christ, nor had seen Christ Himsel...
And then from fear lest out of modesty He refuse, he says.
And what of that, says one, if the centurion did suspect it to be so? For the question is, whether Christ affirmed and ratified as much. You speak well, and very sensibly. Let us then look to this very thing; and we shall find what happened in the case of the leper, the same happening here likewise. For even as the leper said, If you will (and not from the leper only are we positive about His authority, but also from the voice of Christ; in that, so far from putting an end to the suspicion, He did even confirm it more, by adding what were else superfluous to say, in the phrase, I will, be thou cleansed, in order to establish that man's doctrine): so here too, it is right to see whether any such thing occurred. In fact, we shall find this same thing again taking place. For when the centurion had spoken such words, and had testified His so great prerogative; so far from blaming, He did even approve it, and did somewhat more th...
All these things he recounts with grief, that he is “sick,” that it is with "palsy;” that he is “grievously afflicted” therewith, the more to show the sorrow of his own heart, and to move the Lord to have mercy. In like manner ought all to feel for their servants, and to take thought for them.
Conscious of his gentile life, he thought he should be more burdened than profited by this act of condescension from Him with whose faith he was indeed endued, but with whose sacraments he was not yet initiated.
Or, in the centurion are figured those of the Gentiles who first believed, and were perfect in virtue. For a centurion is one who commands a hundred soldiers; and a hundred is a perfect number. Rightly, therefore, the centurion prays for his servant, because the first-fruits of the Gentiles prayed to God for the salvation of the whole Gentile world.
