Real Faith - “You may go; your son will live.” - Jn 4: 43-54
If we read today's Gospel well, we will notice a certain discrepancy. It turns out that Jesus does not fully fulfill the request of the royal official who was begging him. After all, the royal official asks: Come down before my child dies. But Jesus is not going on the road at all, he is not rushing to go to the sick child and lay his hands on him. Jesus replies to the official that he can return safely because his son is alive.
Today's scene is about our families, communities, groups of friends and close people. It tells about parents who, often in despair and sadness because of the loss of their children, come to Jesus and even want to bring him under compulsion to their children who are sick in the soul or body. Often, however, it is not possible to get Jesus. It turns out that it is not that simple. We cannot force Jesus into the circle of our loved ones, even when we are driven by good will and the desire that others will know and experience the healing power of God. In today's Gospel we find the answer how Jesus wants to be in our families, in our human circles of life, work and rest. He wants to come there through us. He does not want to come magically or automatically. He wants to come through us, and more specifically through our faith. He cannot enter into our relationships, into the lives of others, without us, automatically, without our participation. He needs our faith, commitment, and most of all our conversion and faith in God's power. We could say, paradoxically, that God cannot heal others without our faith. Each healing of a person is, on the one hand, a testimony to the boundless power of God's Love, and, on the other hand, a testimony to the faith of those who already believe, when there is no indication of it yet.
By listening to this Gospel, we are also invited to invite Jesus with our faith in God into all those relations with our neighbors where spiritual, physical or mental illness wins and overcomes human love. These words from today's Gospel are an invitation to us to believe, to believe that Jesus heals the same way as two thousand years ago, and that He wants to do it today through our faith in Him.
Do you dare to accept today's invitation to a faith that can rescue and save your loved ones, friends and even strangers whom God will put on your way?
Until Tomorrow
fr. george