HEALING AND RESCUE
Through His
miracles, Jesus wants to show that this power was not only over sickness, but
also over death itself.
Modern medicine in
recent times has made tremendous progress, and continues to do so. And yet,
with all its wonders, all that medicine can accomplish at most is to prolong
life, to put off the inevitable day of death. Medicine can do nothing once a
person has died.
Jesus' miracles are
signs that manifest the presence and power of God's kingdom. When a Gentile
official heard the reports of Jesus' preaching and miracles, he decided to seek
Jesus out for an extraordinary favor. If this story happened today, the
newspaper headlines would probably say: "High ranking official leaves
capital in search of miracle cure from small town carpenter." It took some
guts for a Gentile court official to travel twenty miles in search of a
Galilean carpenter. He had to swallow pride and be ridiculed from his cronies.
Through His
miracles, Jesus wants to show that this power was not only over sickness, but
also over death itself. The faith of the royal official in today's Gospel was
at first only a belief that Jesus had extraordinary healing powers, a belief
that Jesus was some kind of super physician. Jesus rejected that type of faith.
But the man struggled, with God's help, to deepen his faith and cried out:
"Sir, come down before my child dies." When Jesus told him that his
son would live, the official put his whole trust in the words of Jesus and
started for home. When he discovered upon returning home that his son was alive
and well, he came to full faith in Jesus as the life-giver; he became a
believer.
This final,
complete faith of the official is the kind of faith we are called to have in
Jesus. Jesus is not concerned merely with our temporal well being. He wishes us
to share one day in His own resurrection from the dead so that we may enjoy
eternal happiness in heaven.
Each day is a new
day! As the royal official comes to Jesus concerned for the future of his son.
"Your son will live," Jesus says. To Nicodemus, Jesus spoke of being
born again to new life. To the woman at the well Jesus offered water that springs
up to new life. The final goal of our journey and our lives of faith is this:
life made new in Jesus Christ
As we journey from
Lent to Easter Sunday, we need to ask ourselves this question, and ponder on
it: Is there any area in our lives where we need healing, pardon, change, and
restoration? In our responsorial psalm today, we acclaim: "I will praise
You, Lord, for You have rescued me" (Ps 30). These words will have meaning
provided we keep our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and one day we will enjoy
that new creation through our own resurrection.
Do I trust in all
this?