Who He Is

First Reading: Isaiah 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: Psalm 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: John 4:43-54

At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.
For Jesus himself testified
that a prophet has no honor in his native place.
When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,
since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;
for they themselves had gone to the feast.

Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,
where he had made the water wine.
Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.
Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
The royal official said to him,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
While the man was on his way back,
his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
He asked them when he began to recover.
They told him,
“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.

NAB

I’d hate to think that Jesus ever played favorites, but He certainly did seem to have a preference for Cana as a stage for a little flash of His glory, no?

The Gospel today tells us that Jesus left Jerusalem and headed to Galilee, hinting that He was already pursued by those who wished to take Him down. And He is received there with a warm welcome, in the place where He made the water into wine, by people who had been to Jerusalem and experienced all He done there.

So it doesn’t take long for the first miracle-beggar to arrive, knowing the reputation of this Jesus. A royal official he is called, a man clearly of means, and yet that will not help to save his son. His power is reduced to utter dependence on Jesus’ mercy, recognizing that he has no other hope.

And it is that humble pleading, the ready acceptance of his own lowliness, and the confidence with which he places his hope in Jesus that opens the door for a miracle. It is the same confidence with which his mother first approached Him at Cana, echoed again in the same place, and resulting in the same merciful pouring out of divine glory.

Maybe it wasn’t Cana that moved Jesus after all, but the hearts of the ones there who begged miracles of Him. Humble, hopeful hearts that embraced their utter dependence on his mercy.

And what about you? What do you desperately need from Jesus today? Are you afraid to beg for a miracle of mercy because sometimes it seems like Jesus plays favorites and you are not it? Be assured, friend, that it is not so.

Run to meet Him today, throwing all your hope in His mercy, begging with the heart of one who knows she is completely incapable of helping herself. Pursue Him; persevere in faith. Don’t be afraid to ask with desperate pleading. Make yourself a miracle beggar whose only hope is Jesus..

And all that is needed is for you to forget who you are and believe in who He is.

Go ahead, stretch out your hand in faith, and ask for the thing you need but cannot get for yourself. He is waiting with a Cana miracle for you.

Stretch out your hand in faith, and ask for the thing you need but cannot get for yourself.Click to tweet

Today, pray the prayer of the royal man made beggar. Ask Jesus for what you most desperately need with his words, "Sir, come down, ________." Take note of a detail about the day, the date, the weather, what you are wearing, as an act of faith that you will remember this moment when your prayer has been answered.

photo credit

Colleen Mitchell is wife to Greg and mother to five amazing sons here on earth. They serve in Costa Rica where they run the St. Francis Emmaus Center, a ministry that welcomes indigenous mothers into their home to provide them access to medical care, support and education in the weeks before and after the birth of a child. Find out more about her here.