Signs

Greetings on this the Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Readings: Is 65:17-21; PS 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b; Jn 4:43-54
Notes: The Church treats the signs of Jesus with great interest.

Today’s gospel ties two of them together explicitly.

• The restoration and elevation of marriage to a Sacrament.
• The remote healing of the royal official’s child.

Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.

The Signs of Jesus them begin with the foundations of life as promised by the Lord:

• Marriage
• Children

First reading
The promise being fulfilled:
Thus says the LORD:
Lo, I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
The things of the past shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness
in what I create;
For I create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight;
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and exult in my people.

Responsorial Psalm
I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Verse Before the Gospel
Seek good and not evil so that you may live,
and the LORD will be with you.

Gospel Portion
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.

The royal official said to him,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
While the man was on his way back,
his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
He asked them when he began to recover.
They told him,
“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry