The significant element in this story is the fact that the person asking for help is a centurion, a soldier and presumably not a Jew. Yet he has this great faith in Jesus. It is a sign of the future role of Gentiles in the originally all-Jewish Christian community. He asks Jesus to cure a servant who has become paralysed. Jesus immediately responds that he will go and cure him. "No, no," replies the centurion. "I am not worthy that you should come to my house. Just say the word and my servant will be healed." And he goes on to say that as an army officer, he just has to give commands and they are carried out on the spot. When it comes to healing, he knows that Jesus can do the same. Jesus is astonished at the faith of this pagan: "Nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this!" The faith that Jesus expects is not an acceptance of religious doctrines. It is rather an act of total trust and surrender by which people commit themselves to the power of God - in this case, the power of God in Jesus. And he foretells that this is a sign of what is going to happen in the future when Gentiles from all over the world will enter the Kingdom. What is clear from this story and from many other healings by Jesus is the crucial element of faith and total trust in the one approaching Jesus. Let us pray that we may never lose that gift of faith which has been given to us.