1 Tim 2:1-8 / Lk 7:1-10 (2019)
At times we can't help but feel amused when we think about why God would want to use human beings to do His work for Him.
For example, God doesn't need doctors to cure people. He could do this directly if He wanted to.
Yet God decided that scientists who discover medicine and doctors who use the medicine to be the ordinary instruments of healing.
Similarly, God does not need our prayer to make governments and leaders to act responsibly and justly.
He could do this directly Himself. Yet, as we heard in the 1st reading, He gave us the responsibility to pray for our government and leaders.
But whether it is governments or leaders, citizens or followers, all have a responsibility when it comes to authority.
Even in the Church, the clergy has the responsibility to exercise proper authority especially in the matters of faith and morality, and the lay people have the responsibility to obey the church authorities as well as to pray for those in authority to exercise it in humility and service.
Even the centurion in the gospel knows what is authority and responsibility.
Yet he was humble enough to recognize the higher authority of Jesus and pleaded on his servant's behalf.
If the centurion had that kind of faith and responsibility, then we the disciples of Jesus cannot be anything less.
We must pray for those in authority, that they will use it in service and humility.