Gospel
Jn 4:43-54
At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.
For Jesus himself testified
that a prophet has no honor in his native place.
When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,
since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;
for they themselves had gone to the feast.
Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,
where he had made the water wine.
Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.
Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
The royal official said to him,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
While the man was on his way back,
his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
He asked them when he began to recover.
They told him,
“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.
Reflection
Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe”. This quote stuck out to me. It made me wonder what comes first, faith or signs?
It is hard to reconcile faith with the hardships we face in life, we look for signs to prove our beliefs, but what are signs without faith? I think we must first have faith and be willing to ask for help, just like the royal official in the passage. He was willing to humble himself and turn to Jesus for what he could not do on his own. What I thought was even more profound and meaningful after some reflection is that Jesus still gave the royal official the miracle he sought. He healed the dying child, but the man had no physical sign of this, only Jesus’ words “You may go; your son will live”. The man had faith in Jesus and trusted His word that his child would be saved, and he was.
I think this Gospel challenges us to examine whether our faith is contingent upon miraculous signs or if it transcends the need for visible evidence. While signs and wonders may help our faith and offer reassurance, they are not the foundation upon which genuine faith stands. Faith is a choice, a conscious decision to trust in something beyond ourselves, even in the absence of tangible evidence.
This Lent how will we plan to navigate doubt and uncertainty in our own journey of faith?
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