March 28, 2022

Jn 4: 43-54

When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival. Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. 

Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” 

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” 

The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved. 

Relinquishing the Conditions We Place on Jesus

The “royal official whose son lay ill” comes to Jesus with a desperate plea. This devoted father makes clear what he desires of Jesus and how he thinks the desire must be fulfilled. However, Jesus has something more in store for the man, his son, and his entire household. Something in his encounter with Jesus freed the petitioner from his expectation on how things should unfold. He headed home alone, trusting in Jesus’ consoling promise. By relinquishing conditions placed on Jesus and entrusting his desire, the petitioner is freed to truly see Jesus at work. And this “seeing” fostered a deeper “believing” beyond the requested healing.

It is a vulnerable thing we do, bringing to Jesus our heart-rending petitions and prayer.

What are my most heart-rending petitions today? What conditions do I place on God which need relinquishing to better see Jesus at work in my life and these circumstances?

—Patty Feder serves as the administrator of the newly formed UCS Office of Ignatian Spirituality. 

Prayer 

“Jesus, I believe; Help my unbelief.”

—Mark 9: 24b