11 March 2013 - son dance

11 March 2013 - son dance

At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.

Are we spending a lot of time weeping?  Let us lift up our eyes, for the saving help of the LORD is very close.  This brief momentary affliction (cf. 2 Cor 4:17) is already beginning to move and shift hinting that it will give way soon.  Indeed, the pains we feel now are not mere pains.  They are the labor pains of the new creation which is being born (cf. Rom 8:22) as suffering is transformed into selfless love.

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.

We have troubles that seem insurmountable.  Even if we ever can overcome them won't they just be scars on which we shudder to think?  

When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.

This royal offical in today's gospel is undeterred.  He knows that he is not to be content with the situation he has been dealt and he knows that Jesus has the power to fix it.  Jesus senses what is perhaps an ulterior motive in the man's question and so he says:

“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

Precisely at a time like this when he is forced to depend on God more than ever before his own faith is tested.  His selfless plee for the healing of his son can instead become a mere sign to reassure himself.  If he does not cling to faith here he will not be seeking the miracle with a pure heart.  He will be seeking it to resolve his own existential dilema before the vastness of his uncertainty.  See how close is the line between the selfish and the selfless.  The words of Jesus above help the royal official to focus on the true motivation for his question.

The royal official said to him,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”

If there is any admixture of selfishness in his motivation he transcends it and pursues his desire with laserlike focus  And Jesus answers him immediately.

“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 the faith which Jesus doesn't grant with a selfishly requested sign is somehow instilled by the official's selfless dependence on him.

and he and his whole household came to believe.  

What might have been a scar is now a blessing to the whole family of the royal official and, in turn, to us as well.

The LORD is much too good to simply remove burdens.  He transforms them.

You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.

Let us long for the vision which the LORD gives us.

No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,
or the sound of crying;

The LORD's work in us is preparing the way for this glorious destiny even now during Lent.  We are building the houses in which we live in the heavenly Jerusalem.  We are planting the food on which we will rely.

They shall live in the houses they build,
and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.

But to build a house in this Jerusalem only works if we cooperate with the LORD who is building the city itself and creating us, the residents to be.

For I create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight;

With the Psalmist let us sing forever: "I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me."