💖 HOMILY - MARCH 11 💖

First Reading - Isaiah 65:17-21

Gospel - John 4:43-54

Faith is never a one-time process, rather a continuous process of growth. In order to grow in faith, we need humility to perceive God's power in our lives. The readings of today invite us to mature our faith by our humble submission to God.

The reading from Isaiah is a high point of the exultation at the return from exile in Babylon This return was seen as the beginning of the renewal of the world, ‘a new heavens and a new earth’. The names of the new Jerusalem would be ‘Joy’ and ‘Gladness’. This had been promised already during the exile in Ezekiel’s vision of the New Jerusalem (chapters 40-48), where the name of Jerusalem would be ‘The LORD is there’ (48.35). At the end of the New Testament the same promise is repeated in the vision of the descent of the New Jerusalem as a bride adorned for her wedding (Revelation 21.1-22.5). Isaiah, through this passage, invites the people of Israel to believe in the promise of God.

Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus did a long-distance (telepathic) healing for the dying son of an official employed in the royal court of king Herod. Jesus was preaching at Cana, twenty miles away from Capernaum. Herod’s officer came on horseback from Capernaum to Cana urgently seeking Jesus’ presence for the healing of his dying son. He was desperate enough to swallow his pride and make a public request to a wandering preacher for this healing. Jesus’ critical comment on the lack of belief in the Pharisees did not discourage the official. With expectant Faith he pleaded with Jesus, reminding him of the seriousness of the illness. So, Jesus told him, “Go; your son will live.” With trusting Faith in the assurance Jesus had given him, the officer rushed back toward his house. On the way there, he received the good news that his son had been healed at the very time Jesus gave his assurance. The officer was so grateful that he and the other members of his family accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah without fearing the ridicule of fellow-officers and friends.

Dear friends, miraculous healings can take place in our lives, too, if we approach Jesus the healer with true humility, trusting faith, earnest prayer and the willingness to surrender ourselves to God’s will. We have the unfailing word of Jesus to rely on, only that, nothing less.