PRELIMINARY NOTE: This reflection relates to today’s daily meditation (en.elijamission.net) and is probably only understandable in that context.
Beloved Father, how moving was King Hezekiah’s plea to You in his distress! He spoke to You with such confidence, assuring You that he had always tried to live according to Your will. But Your response to his prayer was even more moving: You granted him fifteen more years of life and, in addition, promised to deliver the city from its enemies. This is how you treat your friends—those who show you faithfulness! Living in this friendship with You is true happiness, even though it sometimes means sharing part of the burden that darkens the world because of so many sins.
And then, beloved Father, You were surprised in Your Son, Jesus Christ, by the firm and exemplary faith of the pagan centurion in Capernaum. Beloved Father, is it possible that we can even surprise You, who knows everything and even the subtlest movements of our hearts? Can we really awaken Your admiration with a response of love? I had never thought of it that way, beloved Father!
In any case, the centurion’s humility and faith are a challenge to us. May you find such faith in your children—a faith capable of moving mountains—a faith that never runs out but is renewed again and again, bringing light to this world!
As we embark on the Lenten journey, we hope that by Easter, our faith will be stronger, our hope steadier, and our love more ardent. Perhaps we then can even surprise you?