“For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.”
For I too 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 servant, Do this, and he does it. The centurion's self-understanding as a man under authority is the basis for his understanding of Jesus' authority: command-authority delegated from a higher command produces certain obedience from those below. The centurion knows that effective power flows downward from delegated authority, not upward from the ranks. He perceives that Jesus' authority over disease and demons is the authority of one who operates at the command of a higher power — and that power will produce the same certain result in the servant's body as the centurion's command produces in his soldiers.
Church Fathers on Matthew 8:9
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.
This centurion was of the Gentiles, for Judaea had already soldiers of the Roman empire.
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 shew 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.
Read all 25 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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