March 12, 2018

Gospel: Jn 4:43-54
When the two days were over, Jesus left for Galilee. Jesus himself said that no prophet is recognized in his own country. Yet the Galileans welcomed him when he arrived, because of all the things which he had done in Jerusalem during the Festival, and which they had seen. For they, too, had gone to the feast. Jesus went back to Cana of Galilee, where he had changed the water into wine. At Capernaum there was an official, whose son was ill, and when he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked him to come and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus said, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe!” The official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” And Jesus replied, “Go, your son lives!” The man had faith in the word that Jesus spoke to him, and went his way. As he was approaching his house, his servants met him, and gave him the good news, “Your son has recovered!” So he asked them at what hour the child began to recover, and they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday, at about one o’clock in the afternoon.” And the father realized that that was the time when Jesus had told him, “Your son lives!” And he became a believer, he and all his family. Jesus performed this second miraculous sign when he returned from Judea to Galilee.

Reflections
UNLESS YOU SEE SIGNS
AND WONDERS
YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE
We all long for certainty. When we pray we wish God would show us a sign about what we have prayed for or a sign to confirm a decision we have made. But the Scriptures have shown that in spite of signs and wonders, people still didn’t believe. In the Old Testament, when the rich man asked Lazarus to give a sign to warn people, he said there is no use because people will still not believe. Jesus did a lot of miracles in his time and also his apostles, but there were those who still did not believe. Thomas the apostle did not believe that Jesus had risen until the resurrected Christ put his hand on his wound. What we most need is faith and not signs and wonders. Because if we have faith we will see the confirmation of our prayers through people, through ordinary occurrences in our lives, through our own inner certainty.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2018