As strange as it may seem, today’s readings remind us that Lent, while a season of prayer, penance, and almsgiving, also is a season that is filled with joy. Today, Isaiah speaks of a coming Utopia, a totally new world full of joy and gladness (Isaiah 65:17-21). It is a world without pain or sadness, a world of prosperity and plenty. The dream is of a new Jerusalem after the exile, and of an even greater Messianic kingdom that will come after that. The reading comes from the last part of Isaiah, a part of the book not written by Isaiah. 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.
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, we see a complete renewal of our present world. The past will go into complete oblivion, never to be remembered again. Later, the Book of Revelation will link the idea of a new heaven and a new earth with the “new Jerusalem” foreseen in Isaiah (Revelation 21:1-2).
In our world, we do not expect to live lives without pain, without sickness, without tragedy, and without death. What we can expect from our commitment to Jesus’ Way is to experience in this life the peace that only he can give.
This week we begin a semi-continuous reading of John’s Gospel. Despite what Jesus had said earlier about prophets not being welcomed where they live, today’s Gospel reading (John 4:43‑54) finds Jesus returning to Galilee, returning to the site of his first miracle (turning water into wine) at Cana. Jesus is well received there, because the people had seen what he had done there and in Jerusalem. A high official comes to ask Jesus to cure his son who is dying. How can this scene possibly be considered “joyful”? Jesus’ first reaction is negative. He complains that the people are just looking for miracles, signs, and wonders. The father is undeterred by Jesus’ protestations and persists. He repeats his request for Jesus to come and heal his son before he dies. Once again, we see persistence in prayer.
Remember that in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), it is a centurion who tells Jesus that it is not necessary to go to his house. Here, Jesus simply says: “Go! Your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way, sure that indeed that his son had been saved. On his way home, the official’s servants meet him to tell him that his son is alive and well. On further enquiries, the father learns that the fever subsided 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.
It may be hard for some of us to feel gratitude and joy in these readings. If you are grieving the death of someone you love; or are suffering a great disappointment; or if it is your constant vocation to combat evil or suffering (perhaps you’re in law enforcement or health care?), Lent may feel irrelevant to your pain or the pain of those you must deal with. Yet the Scriptures tell us that God is with us in our pain, and that God has already rescued us, in our salvation in Jesus Christ, the Word of God.
Lent invites us to take our anxieties and griefs and sins and failings, to take all the troubles of the world, and take them to this healing God. If Lent’s forty days awaken me to my relationship with God, and perhaps impel me to some concrete action to renew or deepen that relationship (perhaps through prayer, penance, and/or almsgiving), if that is not joyful, what is?
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!