"lord, I Am Not Worthy To Receive You"

[Lise]

Hey Everyone! Well, I was serving mass this morning and we said [b]"LORD, I am not worthy to recieve YOU, but only say the word and I shall be healed."[/b] I never really got exactly what that meant. Why am I not worthy to recieve HIM? What word will he say to heal me?

peace,
lise : Edited July 2, 2007 by Lil Red
title clarity

[Pio Nono]

JMJ
6/3 - Trinity Sunday

Lise,

The Latin is more correctly translated, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof; say only the word, and my soul shall be healed." It's a partial quotation of the centurion in the Gospel of Luke, who said, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; say only the word, and my servant shall be healed. For I too am a man in command of others; to one I say, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes."

In humility, we confess that we aren't worthy to receive Jesus because of our human sinfulness. By our sins we have made ourselves unworthy. However, Jesus only needs to give the word and our souls are healed from that sinfulness. "Say the word" is a turn of phrase that basically means, "As soon as you say it, it is done." Hope this helps.

Yours,
Pio Nono

[Pontifex]

In addition to Pio Nono's very clear response, I would like to add a point.

Jesus praises the Centurion for his amazing faith, and so the Church in its' wisdom sees it as the perfect response to the declaration of John the Baptist made by the priest. "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." These words of the Baptist are echoed to us as Jesus is made manifest to us on the altar for our healing and for our response in discipleship.


Blessings,
Pontifex


p.s. pio nono you're my hero.