Gospel: John 4: 43-54
A royal official asks Jesus to heal his son. Jesus is irked by the request, bemoaning the fact that unless people see signs and wonders they do not believe. We are taken aback by Jesus' impatience. But consider: Jesus will heal this person and many others, some being spared even death. What do all these people have in common? They are now all dead, and this boy Jesus will heal today will live to die another day, just as we all will.
And yet we search the world for miracles - apparitions, miraculous healings, incorrupt corpses, rosaries turning to gold, and all sorts of things. Why? We claim to have faith, but do we? Are these things necessary for us to believe? If that is the case then we do not have authentic faith. If we need such things and a strong man in government to protect our tribe to boot, then we have not faith at all. We instead have an elaborate cult of insecurity.
Authentic faith is not afraid of life or death. It doesn't need the miracles to know the presence of God, nor does it need a strong man government. The authentic person of faith needs God alone for their assurance and security. Death is not to be feared but rather embraced as any other fact of life, for God is present in death and in life. Lent is a time to face the reality of death for ourselves, to do away with our insecurities that lead to false faith, and to embrace the wood of the cross to follow Jesus toward our own tomb.
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