I’ve been writing a lot of Christian hymns and worship music lately. “Say the Word” began as a musical meditation on words we speak at the Mass as we prepare to receive the Eucharistic presence of the Lord: “Lord, I am unworthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” These words are a variation on Matthew 8:8, where a Roman centurion declares his faith that the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, is able to heal his ailing servant simply with a word. As the faithful centurion prayed for the healing of his servant, so we pray for the healing of our own souls. I am reminded of Matthew 9:1-8, where Jesus heals a paralytic in order to prove that he has the power to heal souls by the power of divine forgiveness: “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” Then he said to the paralytic: “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.” And the man got up and went home. When the crowds saw this, they were filled with awe and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. In our day we take forgiveness for granted perhaps, and so maybe it seems unimpressive presented beside the healing of the paralytic. Why should forgiveness take center stage as our main man’s main miracle here? Many might say that it is, in fact, harder to heal the handicapped than to forgive. I’m not so sure this is true — it is 2025, after all, and American families, let alone communities, have been tearing each other apart with reckless abandon over political disagreements for nearly a decade at this point. There are of course many other causes of schism, whether black sheep or scapegoats. There are as few new things under the sun as there are many causes for strife. The latter can often bring unendurable pain, even if the body should seem unharmed. That the profound wound of resentment, and the festering infection of hatred, can only be healed by divine intervention should be obvious if not for how blinding such an illness truly is. And such a blindness of the heart is, in fact, difficult for even the Lord to cure: “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains." (Jn. 9:41). If a Roman centurion can humble himself to beg favor of a lower-caste subject (a Galilean) of one of his empire’s many client kingdoms (the Herodian Tetrarchy); and if the Lord of heaven and earth can humble himself in the service of one of his people’s Roman occupiers; surely anything that seems impossible for man is possible with God. The eyes of Saul, who in his spiritual blindness persecuted the Christians whom he hated, were seared by the light of the Lord’s glory on the road to Damascus; he only received his sight back from one of those whom he persecuted. With a word, the Lord can do these things. So, as you sing along in prayer with “Say the Word,” listen carefully for the word our Lord has for you. Listen to “Say the Word”:...Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Seán McMahon to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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Friday, April 11, 2025
Song of the Week: "Say the Word"
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