11 March. Monday in the Fourth Week of Lent
All members of the ACP are most welcome to contribute Homily Resource material to this website.
Two paragraphs are fine for weekdays; a little more for Sundays. If possible, send it to me at least a week in advance of the date on which it applies. Send it to: rogers AT mountargus.ie
Isa 65:17ff. “Rejoice in what I am creating!” Good things in store for those who love God.
Jn 4:43ff. In his second public miracle in Cana village, Jesus cures the son of a royal official.
First Reading: Isaiah 65:17-21
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Gospel: John 4:43-54
When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in the prophet’s own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.
Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
An outsider shows the way
Isaiah looks forward to “new heavens and a new earth.” We too look forward to a life beyond the present, when in God’s presence we will live an existence that St. Paul calls a new creation, when what is sown perishable will be raised imperishable (1 Cor 15:42), in life everlasting. Jesus gave a glimpse of this vision to the officer at Capernaum, whose son was nearly dead when came and asked our Lord for help. Our Lord quite simply told him, ‘Go home. Your son will live.’ This pagan officer put his trust in Jesus and started for home, trusting that the boy who was gravely ill will now have a full recovery!
Do we share the hope and confidence of this pagan official? Do we believe that Jesus can work miracles in our lives? Are we convinced that God cares for each person individually, whatever his or her religion or status? Is our heart secure in the faith that whatever happens at the end of each journey – no matter what – it will really be for the best? We can make our own the officer’s prayer of faith: “Yes, Lord, I believe.”
Jesus really can work miracles, now no less than then. The centurion believed his promise, “Your son will live.” Vibrant faith does not exclude human initiative. If it did, the officer would never have bothered coming to Jesus asking that his son be healed. We are told that this was the second sign given by Jesus. The Cana miracle of water into wine was the first sign (John 2:11). These are signs of new life and new joy, promises that the old will be swept away and the past be remembered no more. They point to a new creation through and beyond death. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for you have changed my mourning into dancing.
I am reminded of Jesus’s words: “If you even had “faith” the size of a “mustard seed”, I could have done something with you. Clearly, the “Royal Official” had faith the size of a mustard seed.
The man’s son is healed, after he asks Jesus to heal his son, not because of the “signs” and “wonders” that Jesus did and could do, but because he truly believes, that Jesus, as “God” could heal his son. When, we look, at Mary, who is considered, the first disciple of the Christ, she knows, Christ can do all the “signs and wonders”, but She believes, because of Who He Is…and that is what Faith is about. As Jesus asks in another place: Who Do You Say I am? I am also reminded of the modern day “faith healers”. To live by faith, is not about, a continuous supply of “signs and wonders”. Faith is hard work and it’s usually strongest, where there has not been “signs and wonders”…but a steady belief in the Word of God and God’s promises. In Galilee, Jesus could do nothing, because there was no faith. It is not necessarily the Jewish people who have faith, indeed, “faith” is found with the non-Jew……a point which recurrs many times, and is, one of the key points of St. Paul, who believes, he is sent, to the Gentiles. As well, in this passage, we have the very well known phrase attributed to Jesus: “A prophet is not accepted in their own country.” Something, I know all too well!