Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

ISAIAH 65:17-21  PSALM 30  JOHN 4;43-54

In today’s Gospel, a royal official from Capernaum, whose son is near death, asks Jesus to “come down before my child dies.” He believes that Jesus could heal his son.  However, Jesus does not go down. Jesus stays in Galilee. Jesus simply says: “You may go; your son will live.”

Does the official feel abandoned by Jesus, as Jesus did not go with him to his son in Capernaum?  Does he feel that Jesus has ignored his plea, and has better things to do? No. “The man believed what Jesus said to him, and left.”  He believed in Jesus’ word to him.His son was healed.

In times of trial it sometimes seems as though Jesus has chosen not to come with us  That he is staying away from us.  At those times, like the royal official, we must believe simply in his word, and trust that one day will say with the writer of today’s Psalm:  “I will praise you Lord, for you have rescued me.”