March 22, 2004 - Monday, 4th Week of Lent

FAITH IN THE FUTURE

Readings:
Is 65:17-21; Ps 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b; Jn 4:43-54

Introduction

For people who believe, the golden age lies in the future, not in the past, says the third section of the book of Isaiah. Before the exile, the Jews and their prophets looked to the beginnings, to the past, as the golden era from which humankind had declined. Now the prophet turns to the future. For the believer there is a new world to be built as a sign of the new heaven. Life lies in the future.

The building up of this new world began seriously in Christ. His word renews people. Faith in him brings life and healing, something to live for and joy - now and even more so in the future: a new world, a new relationship with God, a new People of God.

Opening Prayer

Lord our God, almighty Father,
you want us not to turn to the past
to regret it and to mourn over it
but to hope in the future,
in the new earth and the new heaven.
Give us a firm faith
in your Son Jesus Christ,
that notwithstanding the shortcomings of our time
we may have faith in the future,
which you want us to build up
with your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Scripture Readings

First Reading: Is 65:17-21

Thus says the LORD:
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.
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;
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;
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.
They shall live in the houses they build,
and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b

R (2a) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear
and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the nether world;
you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
R I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
R I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

"Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper."
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
R I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Gospel Reading: Jn 4:43-54

When the two days were over, Jesus left for Galilee. Jesus himself said that no prophet is recognized in his own country. Yet the Galileans welcomed him when he arrived, because of all the things he had done in Jerusalem during the Festival and which they had seen. For they, too, had gone to the feast.

Jesus went back to Cana of Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. At Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill, and when he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked him to come and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

Jesus said, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe!" The official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies." And Jesus replied, "Go, your son is living."

The man had faith in the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. He was already going down the hilly road when his servants met him with this news, "Your son has recovered!" So he asked them at what hour the child had begun to recover and they said to him, "The fever left him yesterday in the afternoon about one o'clock." And the father realized that it was the time when Jesus told him, "Your son is living." And he became a believer, he and all his family.

Jesus performed this second miraculous sign when he returned from Judea to Galilee.

Commentary

THEY had rejected him when he was at home, but when they saw him performing in the city they changed their attitude. At home they felt small beside him, but in the city they felt big because of him: he had put Nazareth on the map. The ego enters everywhere and leads wherever it will. It cares about nothing except its own need to feel big-or to feel at least that it exists. Someone said cynically once, "Who cares what the general public thinks? Their opinion is a lottery." Not so, I'm afraid. Our opinions are not random like a lottery; they are fairly consistently the work of the ego.
Is there any hope for us? Of course! How could there be no hope for a Christian?

"Sir, come down before my child dies!" said the official. (John does not say whether this official was a Jew or a Gentile, so it is all of us.) Love made that official think and feel beyond his ego.

General Intercessions

- Lord, speak only your word and we shall be healed, we pray:

- Lord, touch us with your grace and we shall become new and courageous people, we pray:

- Lord, give us yourself again, and you shall make us capable of giving ourselves to others, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God, these are our gifts:
no more than a little bread and wine,
ordinary bread, a simple drink of joy,
but they become among us
the signs of a great future.
Give us faith, Lord,
a faith strong enough to believe
with absolute certainty
that everything becomes possible,
that we can build up
a new heaven and a new earth
in and through your Son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

Lord, God of our future,
we believe in your Son Jesus Christ,
who has been with us
in this eucharistic celebration.
On account of him we are convinced
that even death leads to life,
that there are no barriers
to what you can do with us,
unreliable as we are at times,
that all our dreams can come true
beyond all our expectations
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing

Every year the Church gives us this Lent as an opportunity to become the kind of followers of Christ we were meant to be: courageous, close to God, thinking again of others rather than of ourselves and our own petty interests. Continue to let the Lord renew you, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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