"To have faith in Christ's victory."

To trust in this mercy—present from the beginning of creation—is to have faith in Christ’s victory over death.

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Isaiah 65:17-21

I now create

New heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind again.

Be glad forever and rejoice in what I create; for I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight.

I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people.

The sound of distress and the voice of weeping will not be heard in it any more.

 

You will no longer know of dead children or of adults who do not live out a lifetime.

One who reaches a hundred years will have died a mere youth, but one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant crops and eat their fruit.

 

Ps 30:2 & 4, 5-6, 11-12a & 13b I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊      John 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 which 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 lives!"

The man had faith in the word that Jesus spoke to him, and went his way.

As he was approaching his house, his servants met him and gave him the good news, "Your son has recovered!"

 

So he asked them at what hour the child began to recover, and they said to him,

"The fever left him yesterday, at about one o'clock in the afternoon." And the father realized that that was the time when Jesus had told him,

"Your son lives!" And he became a believer, he and all his family.

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

 

Gospel Reflection ：

"The sound of distress and the voice of weeping will not be heard... any more."

Today's Gospel is accompanied by sounds of weeping that turn to rejoicing,

as the official's son is near death, but Jesus restores him to health. He makes him whole again.

 

Thus, the miracles of Jesus display his divinity and his divine will to renew all things,

to "create new heavens and a new earth," where sin, pain and death are things of the past.

We are perhaps more used to connecting these words with the Book of Revelation (21:1),

but the prophecy was made by Isaiah long before, who looks forward to the glorious fulfilment of God's plan.

 

Jesus, the Son of God, is the centre of God's plan to give fullness of life (Jn 10:10),

a plan that triumphs at the cross and reaches its fulfilment in the glory of heaven.

When we have to bear pain or sorrow, we are to have faith in Christ's victory, just as the synagogue official does in today's Gospel.

Just like him, let us have faith and not be paralysed by fear or sorrow, but go on our way, moving forward with confidence in Christ.