Monday of Week 4 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Isaiah 65:17-21
Isaiah speaks of a coming Utopia, a totally new world full of joy and gladness. It is a world without pain or sadness, a world of prosperity and plenty. The dream is of a restored Jerusalem after the exile, and of an even greater Messianic kingdom after that.
The reading comes from the last part of Third Isaiah, a part of the book not written by Isaiah the prophet. Chapters 65 and 66 form an apocalyptic collection, and date mainly from the period after the exile in Babylon, when a remnant of the Jews had returned to Jerusalem. (While it is not often said, many of the exiles stayed behind in Babylon because life was quite comfortable for them there.)
In the writing of the earlier prophets, messianic happiness was foreseen as a return to paradise, to the bliss of the Garden of Eden. But in apocalyptic literature, such as we have in today’s reading, there is seen rather a complete renewal of our present world. So, we have the opening words today:
For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth.
The past will go into complete oblivion, never to be remembered again.
There will be a new Jerusalem—a completely restored Jerusalem—following the return from exile, and even more so in the Messianic kingdom to come. Later on, the Book of Revelation will link the idea of a new heaven and a new earth with the “new Jerusalem” (Rev 21:1-2).
It will be a world free of pain and sickness, no weeping or wailing, no children dying before their time and no one living less than 100 years. We are speaking, of course, in apocalyptic language, not to be taken literally. It is a dream of better and happier times to come.
It paves the way for the coming of Jesus who, in today’s Gospel, brings healing and wholeness back to a household threatened with death. Here, Jesus anticipates his later statement to Martha:
I am the Resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25)
We do not expect to live lives without pain, sickness or even tragedy, but what we can expect from our commitment to Jesus’ Way is to experience the peace which only he can give.
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Monday of Week 4 of Lent – Gospel
Commentary on John 4:43-54
This week we begin a semi-continuous reading of John’s Gospel. Today, Jesus brings the promise of new life, now and in the future. Today’s Gospel follows immediately after the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman. Jesus now goes back to Galilee from Samaria. In spite of what Jesus had said earlier about prophets not being welcomed in their own place, he was received well, because they had seen what Jesus had done in Jerusalem during his recent visit there.
He returns to Cana, where he had performed his first sign, changing water into wine. A high official comes to ask Jesus to cure his son who is dying. Jesus’ first reaction is negative; he complains of people just looking for miracles, signs and wonders. But the man ignores Jesus’ remarks and repeats his request for Jesus to come and heal his son before he dies. This, in itself, indicates the level of the man’s faith in Jesus. Having faith is always the basic requirement for healing to take place.
In the Synoptic Gospels, it is the centurion who tells Jesus it is not necessary to go to his house. That was because he was a Gentile and knew that Jesus should not go there (it is not clear as to whether John’s account today is another version of this same story, or if it is a different healing event). In today’s Gospel, Jesus simply says:
Go your son will live.
And in response:
The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.
On his way home, the official’s servants meet him to tell him that his son is alive and well. Upon making further enquiries, the father learns that the fever subsided just at the moment when Jesus promised that the boy would live. It was also the moment when the man, trusting in Jesus’ word, began his journey home.
John tells us that this is the second of the seven “signs” that Jesus performed.* Its clear message is that Jesus brings life, eternal life that begins now. In John, eternal life begins as soon as we attach ourselves in total trust to Jesus and to his Way.
Lent is a good time for us to renew our pledge to walk along his Way and to ask for a deep level of faith to do so.
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*The seven signs in John’s Gospel are:
- The changing of water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana (2:1-11)
- The healing of the royal official’s son (4:46-54–today’s reading)
- The healing of a man who is crippled at the pool by the Sheep Gate (5:1-18)
- Feeding of the 5,000 (6:1-15)
- Jesus walking on the water (6:16-21)
- Healing of the man born blind (9:1-41)
- The raising of Lazarus (11:1-44)