Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Today's Mass Readings
As we enter this fourth week of the penitential season of Lent, our eyes are drawn continually toward Jesus, whose passion, death, and resurrection will bring us salvation. In today’s gospel passage from John, Jesus almost seems to be complaining against the people who seek a sign. Jesus says as much to the royal official who is seeking his help, but the official still makes his request. He is not merely making a request in order to see a sign, but because he wants his child to live. Hence the official even leaves Jesus without actually seeing that his son has been healed. Rather, the official “believed what Jesus had said, and left” (Jn. 4:50). In a sense, this royal official grasped something that others failed to see, namely that Jesus himself was the sign. He believed in Jesus as Jesus; this is what drew him to make his request. And it was also what allowed him to leave Jesus without having SEEN his son healed but rather taking Jesus at his word. We are told that this is the second sign that Jesus performed in Galilee, and that the official and his household came to believe in Jesus. It seems an ironic ending to a passage that includes Jesus’ remark about people wanting a sign, but what this healing demonstrated was not merely Jesus’ power, but his humility and willingness to help those who would seek him out and believe his words.
Our first reading is a beautiful passage from the prophet Isaiah that seems to reflect this image of Jesus as the sign. In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus does create a new heavens and a new earth. In the healing described today, he keeps the promise of preserving the life of a youth. And in his death and resurrection, he wins eternal life for all who live in him and die in him.
Hence we can find ourselves celebrating with the psalm response: “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me” (Ps. 30:2a). The healing of the boy was but a sign of Jesus, who is the ultimate sign of God’s love for the world. This Sign Jesus truly has rescued us and continues to rescue us each day. Especially in these final weeks of Lent, we praise the Lord, knowing that he has rescued us, creating a new heavens and a new earth. Let us not be overburdened by our little penitential sacrifices, but rather let us offer them joyfully in a sacrifice of praise for having been rescued by God’s love in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We do our best to enter into this penitential season, but, in the end, we are saved by our Savior, Jesus the Christ.
- Maria Morrow