Faith triggers miracles

Monday, March 12, 2018
4th Week of Lent
1st Reading: Is 65:17-21
Gospel: Jn 4:43–54
In those days Jesus left Samaria 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 (…)
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.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Each time the Jews came to Jesus, it was almost always to ask for a miracle, as if saying “give us this one last miracle and we will believe in you.” Jesus had performed many miracles. But they never believed in him. They kept asking him for miracles even up to the time of his Passion. At Calvary they asked him to come down from the cross and assured him they’d believe in him if he did so (Matt. 27:42). It was no longer a question of sheer addiction to miracles. It already amounted to bad faith because by asking him to come down from the cross they were in effect tempting him to abandon his mission.
Faith works like the little amount of water used to prime up a pump. The smallest amount of faith triggers the outpouring of miracles. Consider the case of the official in today’s Gospel and compare his case with that of a blind man in John 9:1-41. Jesus cured the blind man with all the details of work consisting of taking mud and mixing it with spittle and massaging the blind eyes of the man with it. None of these details were done to the official in today’s Gospel story. At Jesus’ bare words the official already believed. This manifestation of faith was like little amount of water to a hand pump; it extracted an instant miracle from Jesus.
A faithless person asking for miracles is a temptation to God. In such a case God sees no urgency to intervene. To do so would be to succumb to temptation. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya?
I-type ang BANDERA REACT <message/ name/age/address> at i-send sa 4467.