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.
VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL
Amos 5:14
Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and the LORD will be with you.
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.
REFLECTIONS:
"He and his whole household thereupon became believers." John 4:53
At Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Mass, the Lord will call us to make the greatest act of faith in our lives. We will be asked three questions: "Do you have faith in the Father? In the Son? In the Holy Spirit?" We will be able to answer these questions with faith only if we have first answered three other questions: "Do we reject Satan? All his works? All his empty promises?" To reject the many thousands of Satan's works and empty promises is a humanly impossible act of faith, which can only be done by grace.
To strengthen our faith in preparation for the greatest act of faith at Easter, the Church reads to us from the Gospel of John, beginning today and throughout most of the remaining weekdays of Lent. John's Gospel was specifically written to help us have faith "that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, so that through this faith" we may have life in His name (Jn 20:31). Like the royal official in today's Gospel reading, in this last half of Lent we are being increasingly challenged by Jesus to have faith in His words (Jn 4:50). Each one of us and each of our households are called to believe in Jesus as never before (see Jn 4:53).
Very soon, we will be called to make the greatest act of faith in our lives when we renew our baptismal promises. At that hour of faith, the sick will be healed (see Jn 4:52-53), mountains of sin will be moved (Mt 17:20), the strongholds of the evil one will crumble (2 Cor 10:4), and the victory of the risen Christ will be applied to our lives. By faith, we will have Easter and life. Increase your faith (Lk 17:5).
Prayer: Father, may this be the greatest Easter in history. Promise: "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." Is 65:17 Praise: While job hunting, Peter turned down job offers that would have presented temptations to him.
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