A Penitent Blogger
Believing all the way
There is nothing more desperate than the parent of a dying child.
We hear that desperation in the words of the “royal official” in today’s Gospel (John 4:43-54):
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
One can imagine the scene at the man’s home: the child lying near death, the mother nearly frantic with helplessness and the first cold touches of grief.
Get that man from Nazareth, was the father’s mission, and bring him back here or our child will die.
But this desperate father of a dying child would walk away from Jesus empty-handed, with nothing more than Jesus’ word that the child would live.
It was an act of great faith indeed and it would be a long road back home.
One can imagine what the man’s traveling companions might have been thinking: they would travel all the way back only to find the child sicker than before or already dead and they shuddered to think of the grief and the fury that would be unleashed.
But the father believed what Jesus said to him and was ready to walk in faith all the way back home.
Fortunately, as we hear in today’s Gospel, this father did not have to wait until he completed his long journey home: he would receive confirmation of his child’s recovery while he was still on the way.
As people of faith, we ourselves are very much like the father of that dying child. In many ways, we go forward in our long walk of life with nothing to show except faith in the word of Jesus. All around us we hear voices of doubt and even ridicule and still we go forward with faith in the word of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It isn’t always easy. Sometimes we are blessed to receive vindication of our faith along the way, such as a “mountaintop experience” or even the confirmation of a miracle as in today’s Gospel. Sometimes the Lord seems to give us little or nothing to hold onto except our faith until he finally brings us to stand before him at the end of our lives – and then, how much greater and more perfect our joy will be!
No matter what happens in our lives (or what doesn’t) we have no greater example than the desperate man in today’s Gospel who walked away with nothing more than the word of Christ and believed all the way.
We hear that desperation in the words of the “royal official” in today’s Gospel (John 4:43-54):
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
One can imagine the scene at the man’s home: the child lying near death, the mother nearly frantic with helplessness and the first cold touches of grief.
Get that man from Nazareth, was the father’s mission, and bring him back here or our child will die.
But this desperate father of a dying child would walk away from Jesus empty-handed, with nothing more than Jesus’ word that the child would live.
It was an act of great faith indeed and it would be a long road back home.
One can imagine what the man’s traveling companions might have been thinking: they would travel all the way back only to find the child sicker than before or already dead and they shuddered to think of the grief and the fury that would be unleashed.
But the father believed what Jesus said to him and was ready to walk in faith all the way back home.
Fortunately, as we hear in today’s Gospel, this father did not have to wait until he completed his long journey home: he would receive confirmation of his child’s recovery while he was still on the way.
As people of faith, we ourselves are very much like the father of that dying child. In many ways, we go forward in our long walk of life with nothing to show except faith in the word of Jesus. All around us we hear voices of doubt and even ridicule and still we go forward with faith in the word of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It isn’t always easy. Sometimes we are blessed to receive vindication of our faith along the way, such as a “mountaintop experience” or even the confirmation of a miracle as in today’s Gospel. Sometimes the Lord seems to give us little or nothing to hold onto except our faith until he finally brings us to stand before him at the end of our lives – and then, how much greater and more perfect our joy will be!
No matter what happens in our lives (or what doesn’t) we have no greater example than the desperate man in today’s Gospel who walked away with nothing more than the word of Christ and believed all the way.
posted by Penitens | 1:21 PM
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