Monday Week Four
Reading: 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 who 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 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 realised 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.
Reflection Jesus was rejected by his own people and returned to Galilee where he was well received by the people. Here he is approached by the broken-hearted father of a gravely ill child. No racial prejudice would block this father’s belief that Jesus could heal his beloved child. There was no hesitation in his desire to have Jesus come, pray and restore his family to wholeness. He asked Jesus to come ‘now’. The Divinity of Jesus allowed him to heal the Centurion’s son in the son’s absence as demonstrated in the words, ‘go, your son will live.’ Filled with compassion, Jesus had responded to the father’s anguished cry when he placed his faith in him. This is his same response to all who cry out in faith to him today. He wishes to offer fullness of life to us if only we would believe. We are asked to place our faith and trust in him who is love. We are invited to name our deepest and most personal needs so that they can be transformed by his love. Like the Centurion, we are invited into ever deeper union with God; our praise and worship are the offering that we make to a God of love.
In this parable we are fore-warned that we too may be rejected when we attempt to share the Gospel with the people whom we believe are closest to us. However, we, like Jesus are to be undaunted in our mission to bring good news to all people. This is what God asks us to do and through the grace of our baptism and the power of His Holy Spirit we will be able to do so. We must be undaunted in our desire is to make the name of Jesus known across the face of the earth.We unite our prayer with that of the Psalmist when he prayed; ‘Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart’.
Prayer Lord, I thank you for the many ways you touch my life with love each day.
Open my eyes to see you at work in the deepest core of my soul; Deepen my faith and trust that I may ask only for what is for your glory; may I give you thanks each day of life, Amen.
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