Life is full of difficulties and rarely goes as we plan or as we want. This can produce in us a lot of different attitudes: despair, anger, sadness, dullness, insensibility, apathy, restlessness, or depression – even violence. Some people get struck in those negative attitudes and they slowly become their way of life and their general outlook on life.
Today the Gospel shows us a different way of living, the way of trust, faith, and hope. The father in the story was going through a difficult time. His son was seriously ill. Rather than giving himself over to anger, violence, or helplessness, he decides to act. He decided to look for Jesus who was known as a healer. The distant from Cana, where Jesus was, to Capernaum, where the father lived is about a 11 to 12-hour non-stop walk – probably a two day walk at that time. The father arrives in Capernaum, finds Jesus, and begs that Jesus return with him to Capernaum to heal his son. But Jesus does not respond right away. He rebukes the father for just wanting to see miracles. The father does not give into despair. He continues to insist, and Jesus sees that this is a request make in faith and trust. It is not just a desire to see miracles. Everything that Jesus does is to promote faith in the people. His actions are not meant to be a circus show of miracles or an escape from life. Seeing the faith and trust of the father, Jesus says to the father that his son will live and directs him to go home.
On the way home, that 11 to 12-hour return walk, the father receives the news that his son was healed at the same time that he was speaking with Jesus. In end of this story everyone in the family decides to live a new life of faith in Jesus. They choose to act and live in faith, hope, and trust.
Living a life of hope and trust does not mean that we become passive and accept all the negative experiences in our lives. Christians act as the father in the story, with prayer, justice, trust and hope. They are a sign to everyone else of faith.
This time of Lent calls us to develop a deeper trust in the Lord, to abandon our passive hopelessness, anger, violence, apathy, and depression.
Your son will live.
Go on home to him.
Image: https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/jesus/ministry-in-galilee/second-miracle-cana/