"Lord, I am not worthy to receive you..."

[DL82]

I just re-read the passage in Matthew Ch8 where these words are taken from:

“Lord, I am not worthy to receive you under my roof, but only say the word and my servant shall be healed”

These are the words spoken by the Roman centurion who comes to Christ to ask Him to heal his servant. The centurion says that he trusts Christ’s authority even if He’s not physically present to heal the servant.

Only problem with this is, Christ doesn’t then go in under the centurion’s roof. He just says the word, and that’s enough to heal him.

Surely this is the opposite of what happens at Mass, Christ really does come in and is received by us. Though we are unworthy, He really does come.

Do these words imply that somehow the Eucharistic host only speaks the word of healing to us, and it isn’t actually Christ Himself who enters our bodies and is digested when we receive Him?

This is a side to the Real Presence I hadn’t really considered before. Any ideas why we say these words?

 

[drafdog]

Our souls are leaky.
They make that colander you use to drain the spaghetti look seaworthy by comparison.
What we’re praying for is for God to apply some caulking.

Matthew

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

Part of the disjunction, if you will, is that modern Catholics tend to assume that Mass attendance and reception of the Eucharist go hand in hand. For many, many, centuries, this was not the case, so the person in the pew making a spiritual communion would have coincided very well with the story of the centurion - although not actually receiving the Lord into their body, they received Him spiritually and thus the healing He offers.

Even if we are receiving, then, there’s nothing wrong with 1) telling Christ the truth (that we are not worthy) and 2) expressing faith in His power to heal us even without reception. This just makes the fact of subsequent reception all the more marvelous.

 

[CarlH]

I understand these words, spoken just before reception of the Eucharist, this way:

Even though we are unworthy to receive Jesus (in our homes, in ourselves), and even though (as in the Matthew) He could simply say a word and heal us from afar, He nonetheless chooses to enter in to us, in the form of bread and wine; i.e., to be with us and to give Himself to us completely! These words thus highlight the total love and total sacrifice by Jesus of Himself for our sake in the Eucharist. How beautiful these words are, then!

 

[Theolog]

I find it to be akin to the prayer for humble access, but less verbose.

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

I think the intent is clearer in the latter.

 

[milimac]

I realize this is an old thread, but I had the same question and was glad to have stumbled upon this. Another thought I had was not to get too caught up in making an exact parallel to the details of the story (in fact in the story, it is the servant who is healed, whereas in the Mass we are both the Centurian and the servant – “I am not worthy”, “I shall be healed”).

Perhaps the main point is to convey an attitude of faith. The Centurian has faith that his servant will be healed. The Centurian’s servant is indeed healed by Christ. What probably appeared to be some spontaneous uncaused healing at the time was surely revealed to the servant to be from Christ upon the Centurian’s return. We also need faith when we are about to receive what appears as merely bread and wine, but is in fact Jesus.

Another aspect that came to mind is the spiritual communion we have with one another when we receive the Eucharist. When we are sanctified, do we not also help to sanctify others who are in communion and build up the body of Christ? The Centurian’s faith in Christ was a secondary cause of his servant’s healing.

I do like the other posters’ responses though – the fact that we are unworthy to receive Jesus, but he comes to us anyway. Love wins out over other important but lesser matters.

My only concern is that this phrase could be used by someone in mortal sin to rationalize receiving Communion. I think perhaps the word “worthy” is being used in a different sense than when we speak of the necessity of the “worthy reception of Holy Communion”?

 

[Rolltide]

It is worthy of mention that in the new English translation of the Mass coming out in a year or so, the line will be changed to more accurately reflect the Biblical passage. The new translation will be:

Lord, I am not worthy
that you should enter under my roof,
but only say the word
and my soul shall be healed.

 

[PhilotheaZ]

It is worthy of mention that in the new English translation of the Mass coming out in a year or so, the line will be changed to more accurately reflect the Biblical passage. The new translation will be:

Lord, I am not worthy
that you should enter under my roof,
but only say the word
and my soul shall be healed.

It’s funny how everyone thinks the translations about to come out are “new.” Well, I suppose they are, but they are very close to the words that were used when I was a child, when we first began praying the Mass in the vernacular:

Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof. Speak but the word and my soul shall be healed.

Then the words were changed and became further from the meaning of the Latin.

This is not an isolated example; a lot of the other “changes” about to come out are very similar to the language already in use when I was a child.

I often wonder why they are spending all this time and money doing a “new” translation rather than going back and using what we used at the beginning of the Novus Ordo. I suppose we have to do something to keep all the translators on the payroll?

 

[Rolltide]

I often wonder why they are spending all this time and money doing a “new” translation rather than going back and using what we used at the beginning of the Novus Ordo. I suppose we have to do something to keep all the translators on the payroll?

Actually, I can answer that. The reason is that this will be the first worldwide English translation. Before now, each individual English speaking county used its own translation, which led to a lack of uniformity and some substantial differences, depending upon what country you might be in. This translation is being worked on not just by the USCCB, but similar bodies in England, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and other English speaking countries.

 

[valient_Lucy]

None of us are worthy to recieve the Eucharist. Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist not because we deserve it, but because of His love for us. To me, the “Lord I am not worthy” is an expression of wonder that God allows us, out of His love, to recieve Him.

 

[Brendan]

. Any ideas why we say these words?

Yep,

take a look at how Jesus reacted (Mt 8:10)

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith

That was the one and only time that Jesus was amazed at something. There are many, many instances of people being amazed AT Jesus, but this is the one and only time Jesus was amazed at someone else.

What this is a call to have an amazing faith, one that is simply astounding.

And then, there is also the reminder that we really are NOT worthy to recieve the Eucharist, and we are only capable of doing so because God desires it.

 

[japhy]

This is a side to the Real Presence I hadn’t really considered before. Any ideas why we say these words?

Here’s my take on the response:
Enter Under My Roof
The old translation said “worthy to receive you,” but the new translation “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”] is more faithful to the Latin. It does not refer to the roof of our mouths; instead, it comes from the mouth of the centurion in the Gospel. To meaningfully pray this response, we must be familiar with its context:

As [Jesus] entered Caperna-um, a centurion came forward to him, begging him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion answered him, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” … And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. (Matt. 8:5-10, 13)
The statement of the centurion was an expression of his great faith in the power that Jesus had. The centurion believed that Jesus did not need to travel and enter his house, but had the ability to cure his servant by simply willing it and saying it. To come under the roof means to enter the house, implying a familiar relationship. But even more important is that according to Jewish ritual law, entering the house of a Gentile would have made Jesus “impure.” (cf. Acts 10:28)

There is a great spiritual message here. God could have remedied our sorry, fallen state just by willing it, just by saying a word. But instead, He sent His Word to us, coming under our roof – taking on a body of flesh and our human condition – and suffering ridicule, persecution, and death on a cross. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

So what roof do we mean? We are temples of the Holy Spirit, and our flesh is like the “roof” of this temple. We know we are unworthy to be such temples, where God is present spiritually; we are even less worthy to receive our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. But here Christ does for us what he did not do for the centurion, not because our faith is any less (although oftentimes it is), but because “God had foreseen something better for us.” (Heb. 11:40) Jesus gladly comes to us in the Eucharist.

Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People, pp. 131-132​

 

[ptpaton]

I have been searching for the meaning of this phrase for a long time. 12 years of Catholic school brought little meaning, except other than that which was already said in this forum. It was not until recent events that the meaning was clear to me.

Recently, our dear friend the Rev. Msgr. Bruce Dreier, pastor of St. Robert Church in San Bruno, CA passed. He was formerly pastor of Church of the Epiphany in San Francisco, CA, and a dedicated man to clerical work in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and he has left a lasting impression. He gave out to a struggle against cancer after an 8 month fight.

My wife, myself, and the rest of our family were blessed to have him as part of our family, and even more blessed to have him marry us. As I watched our wedding video tonight to remember him, he spoke the words that everyone is used to: “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.” I said to myself, partially angry, “But he wasn’t healed. He died. God didn’t heal him. That’s not fair to take a good man like that. What’s up with that…”

Then it hit me.

He was healed.

Jesus may have been speaking about Earthly beings not being worthy to receive the power of the Lord on Earth, but I think that Jesus was speaking to the end of our worldly life. The meaning I have come to realize is that Jesus was speaking to being called into the Kingdom of Heaven. People have long tried to understand why God would allow us to suffer. There are many times that we do not understand why God would inflict pain or sickness on us, and why he didn’t extend a hand to heal our human bodies so that our suffering would end. What I came to realize tonight is that he does just that.

Jesus was referring to God calling us into his Kingdom. “I am not worthy to receive you” refers to our human form. God allows us to live our lives according to how we think it best to live them. This is central to the concept of free will that he has given us. While we roam on this Earth, we are not worthy for him to enter our lives, even though he may do so when we need it. We are Earthly beings, with sin, even when we receive reconcillation. This is why we must bless ourselves prior to receiving communion…to cleanse what sin is on us so that we are in as close to a state of grace as possible before taking God into our bodies.

However, when we are at our worst, when we are suffering, in pain, and alone, this is what Jesus was speaking to. “Only say the word, and I shall be healed.” Jesus was talking about God allowing us to enter his kingdom. The words mean: ‘Say the word, Lord, and I will be healed. I will join you in eternal peace.’ This means that it is only when God calls us that we can enter his eternal Kingdom of peace and be eternally healed.

This has brought great strength to me in this time of mourning. I feel like God hit me over the head with a sledge hammer with it, but it has truly been a revelation. I hope that this post gives peace to those, like me, who were struggling to understand the meaning, but more importantly to those who do not understand why God allows our loved ones to leave us. I am now at peace with my good friend death.

Most sincerely,
Patrick
San Mateo, CA

 

[TheDoctor]

What I also get from this is that it is not only an acknowledgement that “We know we are unworthy to be such temples” (as Japhy said) but also that there is nothing we can do to be made worthy. Only the Word can heal us, only the Word can make us worthy and like the Centurian we must go out and seek the Word to be made worthy.

P.S. - Japhy - I don’t think I have ever seen someone use their own book as a primary reference in a response. Way Cool! If that’s a typical section, the whole book should be awesome.

 

[outreachasia]

My wife and I were at a mass last Sunday at a church we normally do not attend. I did not hear anyone say “I am not worhty to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed”, nor the prompt from the priest to do so. Does anyone know if this has become “optional” in church?

 

[PhilotheaZ]

My wife and I were at a mass last Sunday at a church we normally do not attend. I did not hear anyone say “I am not worhty to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed”, nor the prompt from the priest to do so. Does anyone know if this has become “optional” in church?

No, it’s not optional. Perhaps they did it and you just missed it. Or perhaps they forgot. If it was just once I would give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

[The_Reginator]

I find it to be akin to the prayer for humble access, but less verbose.

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

I think the intent is clearer in the latter.

Every 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday …

When I became a Catholic I attended a Tridentine Mass. I felt more at home there than at the O.F. Mass at my local parish. The English translation of the Latin is much closer to the old BCP.

If only the Anglicans hadn’t left Christ’s Church…

 

[DL82]

It seems there are 3 different passages of scripture used for the same intent, i.e. the recollection of our unworthiness before our Sacramental Lord:

Luke 7:6 - the centurion’s plea “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof, but only say the word and my servant shall be healed” - used in the Ordinary (and Extraordinary?) form of the Latin Liturgy of the Mass

Matthew 15:26 - the Syro-phonecian woman’s prayer “Yea, Lord; for even the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. a which fall from their masters’ table.” - used in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer

Luke 22:48 - Our Lord’s words “Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?” - which in the Divine Liturgy of the Byzantine Churches the people say “I will not kiss thee as Judas did”

 

[Don9of11]

I understand the reason for wanting the english translation to be more faithful to the original Latin, but in my opinion, there’s really no difference between saying O Lord I am not worthy to receive you or O Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, except that one is more correct than the other to the Latin? In each instance we acknowledge our unworthiness for Christ to come into our souls and either works perfectly whether your receiving spiritually or at the communion rail.

 

[japhy]

I understand the reason for wanting the english translation to be more faithful to the original Latin, but in my opinion, there’s really no difference between saying O Lord I am not worthy to receive you or O Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, except that one is more correct than the other to the Latin? In each instance we acknowledge our unworthiness for Christ to come into our souls and either works perfectly whether your receiving spiritually or at the communion rail.

I already have a post about this in this thread. The words are different, and they can be taken to mean different things. Plus, the Latin is almost word-for-word from Scripture, so why shouldn’t our translation be as well?