“Signs don’t shout; they whisper.”

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.” Mother Teresa: (1910 – 1997: Catholic nun that founded of the Missionaries of Charity)

Gospel Text: (JN 4:43-54)

At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.

For Jesus himself testified

that a prophet has no honor in his native place.

When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,

since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;

for they themselves had gone to the feast.

Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,

where he had made the water wine.

Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.

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.

Jesus said to him,

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

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.

Now this was the second sign Jesus did

when he came to Galilee from Judea.

Today’s Gospel reassures us: “Seek good and not evil that you may live, and the Lord will be with you.”  Are their times when we are caught in the trap of seeking evil, perhaps in such ways as giving in to some negative gossip, jumping into a situation in order to solely be divisive? I am guilty of not assuming the best intentions of someone in an annoying situation or of judging too quickly and I need to catch myself to reflect on whether I am indeed seeking good or seeking evil. 

Oftentimes, it is a fine line and a quick, subtle trap.  Sometimes, I try to handle problems on my own without offering them to God.  Or, I find myself trusting in my own resources and abilities to solve a struggle instead of trusting in God.

Throughout today, I invite us to ask: how are we seeking the good, our God, in our regular daily, small interactions of our ordinary lives?  When we seek God in situations and in others, we are lifted up and given life, instead of wilting away from the destructive, negative influences of the evil spirit.  We are lifted up and reminded of the hope, that foundational piece of our faith, that belief that the Kingdom of God is here, is possible, and that wonderful things await us if we have the faith to believe.