A Jesuit Catholic University
in Omaha, Nebraska, since 1878

[244] Isa 65:17-21 Ps 30:2+4, 5-6, 11-12a+13b John 4:43-54

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer The Daily Reflections

Wow… the first reading for today from Isaiah paints a beautiful picture. Things of the past shall not be remembered… there shall be rejoicing and happiness… 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. At a time in history when people now actually are living to be 100 years old, it seems that we are still far, far away from this “new earth.” And, for me at least, this can be a bit discouraging… it makes it difficult to maintain hope and trust.

I think this is what the Gospel calls us to do however. Regardless of how “impossible” it may seem, I think we must maintain hope and trust; in the Lord, of course, but also in each other. When I picture the scene of today’s Gospel I see Jesus speaking the words, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe” with amused exhaustion. (As a practice teacher in a local high school) I almost imagine it to be the same response that a teacher has when she/he sees the same mistake over and over and over again, year after year because the students make the problem FAR more complicated.

This is how I see Jesus in this moment. Shaking his head with a little smirk on his face. And then, exhausted from teaching the same lesson over and over again, he simply tells the official, “You may go; your son will live.” I believe our call is to go and do likewise… to go forth in trust. Not blind or uninformed trust, but a trust that leads to a life of simplicity rather than complexity.