Your Son Will Live!

Monday, March 31, 2025

Is 65:17-21; Jn 4:43-54

Today’s Gospel initiates a debate regarding the role of signs in nurturing our faith in Christ. 

Do we really need signs to believe in Jesus, or are we mature enough to hold on to our faith even in the absence of external signs? 

Some of us might strongly agree that we need signs to complement our faith. The beginners need such signs as offering spiritual reassurance. In this sense, we may be justified in looking for external manifestations to nurture our faith in the Lord. 

However, we find Jesus being disappointed when people narrowly focus on signs almost in every instance to express their faith in him. When people refuse to believe despite his signs, we understand that they indirectly subject Jesus’ identity as the Son of God to test. This is what is more disappointing to Jesus. 

Today’s Gospel text elaborates on how the Galileans came to believe in Jesus by witnessing his works in Jerusalem. In addition, his return to Cana, where he changed water into wine earlier, must have been a significant moment for those people. Only against this backdrop did Jesus expect the royal official to believe in the power of his words.  

Nevertheless, the royal official is more insistent on Jesus coming down (which he repeats twice) personally to heal his son, without believing that the one who changed water into wine by a spoken word could also heal his son in the same way. Though we can take that the man departed Jesus’ presence trusting in his words, the real power of Jesus’ words is confirmed by his slaves, who help him understand that his boy was healed at the time when Jesus said, ‘Your son will live.’

The royal official is hesitant to take Jesus’ word as authority despite the example of the Galileans who witnessed the mighty works of Jesus in Jerusalem and the miracle at the wedding feast in his hometown. 

Though we may commend the royal official for finally believing in the words of Jesus as his ‘departing’ would symbolize, in the way he pleads for the presence of Jesus to heal his son, we understand that his faith was not mature enough as it depended on signs. 

Coming back to the debate regarding the need for signs to believe against the backdrop of the healing narrative, we may conclude that looking for signs may not be a bad thing to begin with. However, maturity in spiritual life is about trusting in Jesus even in the absence of signs.

Let us pray that we may grow into faithful people who can believe without requiring signs. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar