Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
First Published Sunday, March 26, 2006
Your Faith Has Cured You
Readings for Monday of the 4th Week of Lent? click here for the lectionary readings
Reflection:
We have seen the need for on-going conversion through out this Lenten season. We are constantly reminded that we need to have faith and that faith, we are told can do amazing things. The lack of it can also be devastating.
Last night an old friend who has a parish in the Lansing area called me and asked if I could run over and see the husband of one of his parishioners who is gravely ill at the U of M Hospital. The man, in his early 50's is suffering from Hepatitis and his liver is failing. In short, without a liver transplant, his prospects are grim. He has a young family with 3 sons ranging from 8 to 15 years old.
When I got to his room it was clear he was in trouble. Not just because his illness was really causing him discomfort, but because he was alone, and I don't mean because there was no one in his room. You see this man had, many years ago, lost his faith and did not have anything to support him now. I asked him how he was doing and his first words to me were; "I am afraid."
I need to tell you, I was taken aback. Many of you know that a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with cancer of the lung. You know I went through many tests and ended up in the operating room at the same hospital I was in last night. I can tell you truthfully the one emotion I never felt, even when two very senior docs at the University told me my prospects were not good, was fear. I felt regret, I even felt some anger – I figured that it was my pipe smoking that had gotten me there and I was angry that I had not quit years ago. But, I was not afraid. You see, in spite of my constant battle to find faith, when I was confronted with an overwhelming situation, it was just… there. God buoyed me up. He gave me the strength to be an example to others, even as I struggled to overcome the weakness the Inflammatory Pseudo-tumor (that's what it was finally diagnosed as) cause me discomfort.
I was at peace. I was confident that, what ever happened, it would be God's will. It was this sense of peace I tried to give the man at the hospital last night (and again the morning). I told him, in much the same way the Lord told the official in Galilee, that he needed to let go of his fear and give it to God. God was there with him, just as surely as I was there with him. Michael told me that, while he did not go to church, he talked to God all the time. But it was clear from his state of mind that talking to God is not making a commitment to God and that talking to God did not mean listening to what God had to say to him.
I pray for Michael. May God's healing spirit be with him, may God's consolation come to him and give him peace. I truly believe it will save him, in this life and the next. Pax
I welcome your comments. If you would like to make one and are not registered on Myspace, you can email me at miles_jj@excite.com and, if you wish, I will post your response as a comment. Thanks.
Scripture[1] from Is 65:17-21
Jerome Biblical Commentary[2]
17 Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.
18 Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight;
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people. No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there, or the sound of crying;
(a) SALVATION OF THE REMNANT (65 :1-25).
The opening lines mesh well with the preceding; this fact may explain why chs. 65-66 were inserted here.
17-25. A panorama of joy, with the whole universe sharing man's redemption, now extends before us. Three times bara' (to create) occurs; very plainly the achievement is God's, and he and Israel are united in common joy. The world will not be destroyed but transformed into "new heavens and a new earth," a phrase familiar in apocryphal literature (2 Esdras 6 :16; 7:30ff.; 2 Baruch 32:16; 1 Enoch 91:16; 2 Cor 5:17; 2 Pt 3 :10-13; Ap 21 :1).
20 No longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime; He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years, and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.
20. This verse interrupts the light, lyrical movement of the passage and is usually considered a late gloss (Torrey, Marti, Kissane, Muilenburg, Penna).
21 They shall live in the houses they build, and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant;
21. We glimpse a picture of idyllic peace; but it is not to be accredited to human ingenuity nor proportioned to human merit.
[1] All biblical references -New American Bible United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202) 541-3000 December 09, 2002 Copyright © by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
[2] All references to Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, Inc.© 1968
Scripture from Ps 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b
Jerome Biblical Commentray
2 I praise you, LORD, for you raised me up and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
4 4 LORD, you brought me up from Sheol; you kept me from going down to the pit.
4 [4] Sheol ... pit: the shadowy underworld residence of the spirits of the dead, here a metaphor for near death.
Ps 30. A thanksgiving song of an individual. The title associates it with the dedication (hanukkâ) of the Temple in 164 BC (cf. 1 Mc 4:35-59). Structure: 2, praise of Yahweh for having saved him from death; 3-4, the story of his experience; 5-6, invitation to bystanders to praise the Lord and to learn from this event; 7-12, a more explicit description of his trouble and deliverance, ending with praise of Yahweh. 2. His "enemies" would "rejoice" in that his misfortune proves he is one stricken by God.
5 Sing praise to the LORD, you faithful; give thanks to God's holy name.
6 For divine anger lasts but a moment; divine favor lasts a lifetime. At dusk weeping comes for the night; but at dawn there is rejoicing.
5-6. The thanksgiving song regularly appeals to bystanders to associate themselves in the praise of God, and it frequently becomes didactic, as in the expressive lesson of 6.
11 Hear, O LORD, have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper."
7-11. The psalmist goes back over his problem to the days of his overconfidence, and relives it, repeating his prayer (9-11).
12a You changed my mourning into dancing;
13b O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
12. A graphic picture of his restoration; sacred "dancing" was known in Israel (2 Sm 6:16).
Scripture from Jn 4:43-54
Jerome Biblical Commentary
43 16 After the two days, he left there for Galilee.
16 [43-54] Jesus' arrival in Cana in Galilee; the second sign. This section introduces another theme, that of the life-giving word of Jesus. It is explicitly linked to the first sign (John 2:11). The royal official believes (John 4:50). The natural life given his son is a sign of eternal life.
(d) THE SECOND SIGN (4:43-54). 43. The journey begun in 4:1-3 is now concluded.
44 17 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place.
17 [44] Probably a reminiscence of a tradition as in Mark 6:4. Cf Gospel of Thomas John 4:31: "No prophet is acceptable in his village, no physician heals those who know him."
44. This saying is ascribed to Jesus in Mk 6:4; Mt 13:57; Lk 4:24. Because it does not seem to agree with v. 45, some have concluded that for John, Judea and not Galilee was Jesus' "native place." This, however, appears to be incompatible with 1:45. Rather, the verse appears to be parenthetical here: It is John's summary of the Galilean ministry, reflecting the same final judgment passed on it in the Syn tradition.
45 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.
45. In this respect, we should remember that the enthusiasm based on the signs wrought in Jerusalem (cf. 3:2), though it might be the beginning of true faith, might just as easily prove to be illusory
(cf. 2 :23-25); such, in fact, was the case with the Galileans. The episode that follows may be the Johannine version of the cure recorded in other variant forms by Mt 8:5-13 and Lk 7:1-10; such was the opinion of Irenaeus (Adv. haer. 2.22, 3; PG 7.783). The Syn narrative also appears at the beginning of the Galilean ministry. John has selected the story for his second "sign," which took place in the same village of Cana. The first sign was only indirectly connected with the theme of life; in the second, life is spared from an immediate threat of destruction. The progression will reach its climax in ch. 11, when life becomes triumphant over death itself in the resurrection of Lazarus.
46 18 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.
18 [46-54] The story of the cure of the royal official's son may be a third version of the cure of the centurion's son (Matthew 8:5-13) or servant (Luke 7:1-10). Cf also Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30.
46. Cana in Galilee: See comment on 2:1; John reminds us that the "first sign" also took place here. royal official: Presumably this man held a position in the service of Herod Antipas (?History of Israel, 75 :140), who was popularly styled "king." Jn does not indicate whether he was a Jew or a Gentile.
47 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.
47. The official had obviously heard of the "signs" that Jesus had been performing in Jerusalem (cf. v. 45). Jesus' healing miracles are not mentioned; the Evangelist presumes that the reader will know of these from the Syn tradition.
48 Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe."
48. As in the previous miracle at Cana, Jesus' initial reply is an apparent refusal (cf. 2:4). However, his use of the plural ("you people") rises to a general principle: Faith must not rest on miracles only.
49 The royal official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."
50 Jesus said to him, "You may go; your son will live." The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
49-50. Like Mary, the official recognizes that his request has not been definitively refused. The effect intended is now secured, for the man believes "the word Jesus spoke to him." This is not to say that he had acquired perfect faith, but it was a beginning.
51 While he was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
52 He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, "The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon."
53 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.
51-53. The creative word of Jesus effects the desired cure, which now appears to be not so much the cause of the man's faith but rather its consequence; signs and faith in the word go together (cf. 14:11; so also the frequent insistence in the Syn miracle stories, e.g., Mk 5 :34 par).
54 (Now) this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.
54. By an inclusion Jn once more connects the two signs at Cana. (For another interpretation of this sign, cf. A. Feuillet, RScRel 48 [1960] 62-75; Johannine Studies, 39-51).
First Published Sunday, March 26, 2006
Your Faith Has Cured You
Readings for Monday of the 4th Week of Lent? click here for the lectionary readings
Reflection:
We have seen the need for on-going conversion through out this Lenten season. We are constantly reminded that we need to have faith and that faith, we are told can do amazing things. The lack of it can also be devastating.
Last night an old friend who has a parish in the Lansing area called me and asked if I could run over and see the husband of one of his parishioners who is gravely ill at the U of M Hospital. The man, in his early 50's is suffering from Hepatitis and his liver is failing. In short, without a liver transplant, his prospects are grim. He has a young family with 3 sons ranging from 8 to 15 years old.
When I got to his room it was clear he was in trouble. Not just because his illness was really causing him discomfort, but because he was alone, and I don't mean because there was no one in his room. You see this man had, many years ago, lost his faith and did not have anything to support him now. I asked him how he was doing and his first words to me were; "I am afraid."
I need to tell you, I was taken aback. Many of you know that a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with cancer of the lung. You know I went through many tests and ended up in the operating room at the same hospital I was in last night. I can tell you truthfully the one emotion I never felt, even when two very senior docs at the University told me my prospects were not good, was fear. I felt regret, I even felt some anger – I figured that it was my pipe smoking that had gotten me there and I was angry that I had not quit years ago. But, I was not afraid. You see, in spite of my constant battle to find faith, when I was confronted with an overwhelming situation, it was just… there. God buoyed me up. He gave me the strength to be an example to others, even as I struggled to overcome the weakness the Inflammatory Pseudo-tumor (that's what it was finally diagnosed as) cause me discomfort.
I was at peace. I was confident that, what ever happened, it would be God's will. It was this sense of peace I tried to give the man at the hospital last night (and again the morning). I told him, in much the same way the Lord told the official in Galilee, that he needed to let go of his fear and give it to God. God was there with him, just as surely as I was there with him. Michael told me that, while he did not go to church, he talked to God all the time. But it was clear from his state of mind that talking to God is not making a commitment to God and that talking to God did not mean listening to what God had to say to him.
I pray for Michael. May God's healing spirit be with him, may God's consolation come to him and give him peace. I truly believe it will save him, in this life and the next. Pax
I welcome your comments. If you would like to make one and are not registered on Myspace, you can email me at miles_jj@excite.com and, if you wish, I will post your response as a comment. Thanks.
Scripture[1] from Is 65:17-21
Jerome Biblical Commentary[2]
17 Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.
18 Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight;
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people. No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there, or the sound of crying;
(a) SALVATION OF THE REMNANT (65 :1-25).
The opening lines mesh well with the preceding; this fact may explain why chs. 65-66 were inserted here.
17-25. A panorama of joy, with the whole universe sharing man's redemption, now extends before us. Three times bara' (to create) occurs; very plainly the achievement is God's, and he and Israel are united in common joy. The world will not be destroyed but transformed into "new heavens and a new earth," a phrase familiar in apocryphal literature (2 Esdras 6 :16; 7:30ff.; 2 Baruch 32:16; 1 Enoch 91:16; 2 Cor 5:17; 2 Pt 3 :10-13; Ap 21 :1).
20 No longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime; He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years, and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.
20. This verse interrupts the light, lyrical movement of the passage and is usually considered a late gloss (Torrey, Marti, Kissane, Muilenburg, Penna).
21 They shall live in the houses they build, and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant;
21. We glimpse a picture of idyllic peace; but it is not to be accredited to human ingenuity nor proportioned to human merit.
[1] All biblical references -New American Bible United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202) 541-3000 December 09, 2002 Copyright © by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
[2] All references to Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, Inc.© 1968
Scripture from Ps 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b
Jerome Biblical Commentray
2 I praise you, LORD, for you raised me up and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
4 4 LORD, you brought me up from Sheol; you kept me from going down to the pit.
4 [4] Sheol ... pit: the shadowy underworld residence of the spirits of the dead, here a metaphor for near death.
Ps 30. A thanksgiving song of an individual. The title associates it with the dedication (hanukkâ) of the Temple in 164 BC (cf. 1 Mc 4:35-59). Structure: 2, praise of Yahweh for having saved him from death; 3-4, the story of his experience; 5-6, invitation to bystanders to praise the Lord and to learn from this event; 7-12, a more explicit description of his trouble and deliverance, ending with praise of Yahweh. 2. His "enemies" would "rejoice" in that his misfortune proves he is one stricken by God.
5 Sing praise to the LORD, you faithful; give thanks to God's holy name.
6 For divine anger lasts but a moment; divine favor lasts a lifetime. At dusk weeping comes for the night; but at dawn there is rejoicing.
5-6. The thanksgiving song regularly appeals to bystanders to associate themselves in the praise of God, and it frequently becomes didactic, as in the expressive lesson of 6.
11 Hear, O LORD, have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper."
7-11. The psalmist goes back over his problem to the days of his overconfidence, and relives it, repeating his prayer (9-11).
12a You changed my mourning into dancing;
13b O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
12. A graphic picture of his restoration; sacred "dancing" was known in Israel (2 Sm 6:16).
Scripture from Jn 4:43-54
Jerome Biblical Commentary
43 16 After the two days, he left there for Galilee.
16 [43-54] Jesus' arrival in Cana in Galilee; the second sign. This section introduces another theme, that of the life-giving word of Jesus. It is explicitly linked to the first sign (John 2:11). The royal official believes (John 4:50). The natural life given his son is a sign of eternal life.
(d) THE SECOND SIGN (4:43-54). 43. The journey begun in 4:1-3 is now concluded.
44 17 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place.
17 [44] Probably a reminiscence of a tradition as in Mark 6:4. Cf Gospel of Thomas John 4:31: "No prophet is acceptable in his village, no physician heals those who know him."
44. This saying is ascribed to Jesus in Mk 6:4; Mt 13:57; Lk 4:24. Because it does not seem to agree with v. 45, some have concluded that for John, Judea and not Galilee was Jesus' "native place." This, however, appears to be incompatible with 1:45. Rather, the verse appears to be parenthetical here: It is John's summary of the Galilean ministry, reflecting the same final judgment passed on it in the Syn tradition.
45 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.
45. In this respect, we should remember that the enthusiasm based on the signs wrought in Jerusalem (cf. 3:2), though it might be the beginning of true faith, might just as easily prove to be illusory
(cf. 2 :23-25); such, in fact, was the case with the Galileans. The episode that follows may be the Johannine version of the cure recorded in other variant forms by Mt 8:5-13 and Lk 7:1-10; such was the opinion of Irenaeus (Adv. haer. 2.22, 3; PG 7.783). The Syn narrative also appears at the beginning of the Galilean ministry. John has selected the story for his second "sign," which took place in the same village of Cana. The first sign was only indirectly connected with the theme of life; in the second, life is spared from an immediate threat of destruction. The progression will reach its climax in ch. 11, when life becomes triumphant over death itself in the resurrection of Lazarus.
46 18 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.
18 [46-54] The story of the cure of the royal official's son may be a third version of the cure of the centurion's son (Matthew 8:5-13) or servant (Luke 7:1-10). Cf also Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30.
46. Cana in Galilee: See comment on 2:1; John reminds us that the "first sign" also took place here. royal official: Presumably this man held a position in the service of Herod Antipas (?History of Israel, 75 :140), who was popularly styled "king." Jn does not indicate whether he was a Jew or a Gentile.
47 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.
47. The official had obviously heard of the "signs" that Jesus had been performing in Jerusalem (cf. v. 45). Jesus' healing miracles are not mentioned; the Evangelist presumes that the reader will know of these from the Syn tradition.
48 Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe."
48. As in the previous miracle at Cana, Jesus' initial reply is an apparent refusal (cf. 2:4). However, his use of the plural ("you people") rises to a general principle: Faith must not rest on miracles only.
49 The royal official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."
50 Jesus said to him, "You may go; your son will live." The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
49-50. Like Mary, the official recognizes that his request has not been definitively refused. The effect intended is now secured, for the man believes "the word Jesus spoke to him." This is not to say that he had acquired perfect faith, but it was a beginning.
51 While he was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
52 He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, "The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon."
53 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.
51-53. The creative word of Jesus effects the desired cure, which now appears to be not so much the cause of the man's faith but rather its consequence; signs and faith in the word go together (cf. 14:11; so also the frequent insistence in the Syn miracle stories, e.g., Mk 5 :34 par).
54 (Now) this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.
54. By an inclusion Jn once more connects the two signs at Cana. (For another interpretation of this sign, cf. A. Feuillet, RScRel 48 [1960] 62-75; Johannine Studies, 39-51).
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