"The Cry of the Centurion"

Friends: 

 

I commend this article by  Patrick Henry Reardon as he looks at the various Gospel accounts of the witness of the Centurion at Calvary.

 

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles7/ReardonCenturion.php 

 

We note that Reardon ascribes the Centurion's cry to God's inspiration and revelation, as we do also hold in the prayer of the Order.

 

 

from the article

 

"It is at the cross that the centurion, who thus becomes a symbol of Christian faith, addresses the Father's affirmation about His Son....Matthew's centurion illustrates, in addition, the principle that Jesus enunciated earlier with respect to the recognition of His own identity, namely, that "no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him" (11:27). As the recipient of this divine revelation, Matthew's centurion is a spokesman for the Church, sharing in Simon Peter's foundational confession: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (16:16).

 

and the Order's prayer

Almighty God, our sovereign Lord, who called Cornelius the Centurion to be the first Christian among the Gentiles, who healed the servant at Capernaum in accordance with the Centurion's great faith, and who inspired the Centurion at Calvary to glorify Jesus; strengthen us in our faith that we might follow their example to love, serve, and glorify you as faithful members of the Church Militant, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.