Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 244

Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,
where he had made the water wine.

 L aetare Sunday and this Monday of the fourth week of Lent mark a shift in our approach to Easter. We have been reminded of our penitential way of life; that is, the faithful repent of sin and turn to the Gospel. Now we turn our attention to the saving work of God in the person of Jesus. (It's not about us anymore.) Today's gospel reminds us of where it all began, in Cana of Galilee where he had made the water wine. 

We remember the unmitigated joy of that occasion. Jesus put off the sad, hour of crisis that would come in its time and provided a superabundance of extraordinary wine to undeserving, careless people. Nor did he make a big deal of it; only a few knew where the gift had come from, and only his mother could know its significance. 

Coming to John 5, we hear the Lord's complaint, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” Signs will follow as he cures on a Sabbath, feeds large crowds, gives sight to a blind man, and raises a dead man to life. Our amazement at God's goodness should lead us to faith in him. We will need enormous faith when we see his glory revealed with a brilliance that blinds and confuses. 

Today's teaching on faith is admirably simple: 

“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. 

The Word of God spoke a word of mercy and the royal official believed.

Faith is that simple. We can present arguments for why faith is reasonable, but arguments only persuade people that they should believe. That is not a decision. There is, in fact, a long distance between that should and a life-changing decision. Disciples are those who decide to believe what Jesus says and live with that fundamentally new realization. It changes nothing but ourselves. 

Learning of his son's recovery though he had not yet seen it, he again "believed what Jesus said." He "realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live and he and his whole household came to believe."