"The fever left him..."

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
​The readings may be found here: USCCB

Pay attention to the passage from Isaiah today. of course it is a message of hope - the promise that God will renew His people. But notice something amazing - we learn here that God delights in us "I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people." Have you ever brought this truth to prayer, that the God Who created you delights in you? Remember that Jesus Christ, the living Revelation of the Face of God said to us "I do not call you servants, I call you friends." He invites us into His work and we matter to Him.

Pay attention next to the Gospel passage - in this part of John's Gospel, Jesus has a series of encounters that begin the revelation of the truth of His identity - a truth offered poetically in the prologue. The encounters reveal Him doing the work of the Father or speaking with divine authority. In this particular miracle story we see that divine quality which is compassion. To us at present, this passage is all the more powerful. It is so easy to imagine just now the anguish of a father whose child is ill and the relief and exultation at the news that the boy is well - that "the fever left him." These readings speak to us of the tenderness of God's care for us, the depth of Divine compassion, and the ground for our hope in this moment and every day in the Lord of Life.