Good News

Gospel According to John 4.49-54. "The official said to him, "Sir,come down before my little boy dies."Jesus said to him,"Go your son will live ."The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.As he was going down , his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive.So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, "Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him ."The father realized that it was the hour when Jesus had said to him," Your son will live".So he himself believed, along with his whole household.Now this was the second sign that Jesu did after coming from Judea to Galilee." Jesus perfectly curing and giving back the life of a boy of an official is significant in that it reveals the effect of mediation.Here the father, the official, is asking for cure and life of the boy.The boy is not at all in the picture. Because of his faith in God the father comes down in searc...

Gospel According to John 4.46-48. Jesus heals an Official's Son Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine.Now there was a royal official's son lay ill in Capernaum.When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee,he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.Then Jesus said to him "unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe". Continuing with our earlier deliberations, believing in God is really difficult.Because it demands many things from us, we may have to forgo precious and dear people and objects.Not necessarily.Believing in God is really a challenge.In fact I would say the greatest challenge, a man has to face in his life.It defies reason and it negates plain and visible things.Our belief is solely based on our inner movements and convictions.We may be instructed to believe in God but the catechism or the preaching of priests can only influence us in a particular way....

Gospel According to John 1.43-45 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee(for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in the prophet's own country).When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival;for they too had gone to the festival. Here we find Jesus moving from place to place to preach the plan of Salvation.In fact we see in the Gospels that Jesus loved to travel a lot.He was never fixated to a place.He wanted to be a wanderer for God and for the people over whom he had developed compassion because they were in total darkness.The travelling Jesus had only one Mission in life and that was to reveal the Father in heaven, the Father in our deepest hearts bestowed on us in birth and baptism.He exhorted people to understand this plan of salvation.Our mind is limited and finite and it is very vulnerable to death.Today or tomorrow we will get decayed by God's Own creat...

Gospel According to John 4.39-42 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony,"He told me everything I have ever done."So when the Samaritans came to him , they asked him to stay with them;and he stayed there two days.And many more believed because of his word.They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves , and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world." There are two ways by which we can believe in something, one is that we accept what others say and second is that we ourselves have to directly encounter something to believe.What is this believing actually?Believing is an act of the mind or will that something is there or that something exists out here/ out there.So it is primarily giving assent to something that is not usual and the mind requires tremendous effort and resources for such a state.Because we agree to go by that even when when it is ...

Gospel According to John 4.35-38. "Do you not say ,'Four months more, then comes the harvest'?But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving the wages and is gathering fruits for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together .For here saying holds true ,'One sows and another reaps.'I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour.Others have laboured and you have entered into their labour." Jesus is obviously referring to the preparedness that we need to have to enter into the Kingdom of God.Multitudes of people walk around the earth, they eat, drink and do lots of work.Are we aware of the fact that our life is not just to maintain the body and carry on with the daily chores.There is a deeper purpose behind all these mundane activities. A scientist works say, 18 hours in the laboratory, a factory worker works 8 hours, a housemaid may work 12 hours , so many devote a subst...

Gospel According to John. 4.31-34. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him,"Rabbi, eat something."But he said to them,"I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another,"Surely no one has brought him something to eat?"Jesus said to them "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and complete his work." We take food to maintain our body in good condition.The wheat, the rice or its products that we eat provide source of energy to our body to keep all the systems functioning well, our nervous system, circulatory system, muscular system and other systems.So we keep going uninterrupted.And we do not die.But if we do not eat what will happen, our body will not have the nutrients to function and it will stop functioning sooner rather than later, which means death due to the absence of food.But God has provided us with enough food to eat.But that is not the case with millions of people across Africa, Asia and other c...

Gospel According to John 4.27-30. Just then his disciples came.They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman,but no one said,"What do you want?"Or "Why are you speaking with her?".Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.She said to the people,"Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!He cannot be the Messiah, can he?They left the city and were on their way to him." How do we know Jesus? Who has told me about Jesus?What is my source of information about Jesus?How did I come across Jesus?There are different ways by which we have come to know Jesus.Our childhood education, the prayers said at home, the neighbours going to churches or our parents going to churches and some books, all these could be the source of information about Jesus.But there is a hidden source of Jesus, that is through baptism we are exposed to the blessings of God, we are made children of God.From that moment onwards God guides us in his wa...

Gospel According to John 4.25-26 The woman said to him,"I know that Messiah is coming"(who is called Christ).When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us".Jesus said to her. "I am he, the one who is speaking to you." Do we recognise Jesus in our lives?Of course Jesus [never] appears directly to us after his Ascension to Heaven.We seldom come across Jesus the Son of God in person these days. He remains completely hidden from us.Do we hear his sound or Does he speak to us in person? That is also very unlikely.Then how do we recognise Jesus in our lives.In the Imagining form of prayer it is suggested that you imagine Jesus as speaking to you, just as He was speaking to the Samaritan woman.In this imagination also our own preconceived notions and previously acquired impressions play a significant part.Thus our attempt to "see" Jesus in our mind may also may be failing.Do we require an image of Jesus.Yes we require.We can of course turn to the images p...

Gospel According to John 4.22-25 "You worship what you do not know;we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth". How do we worship God?Many of us do not worship in truth and spirit.We worship God in many ignorant ways that may not be true worship of God.For true worship first of all consists in an interior change of heart , the heart is to tend towards God, the heart is to long for God, the heart which is like a soft petal of rose or pure white feather, free from all impurities and sins.That is the first step of worship.Secondly our deep conviction that we are worshipping the True God.If we do not have this deep conviction our worship will become mechanic devoid of any meaningful relationship with the Living God.We are to establish ...

Gospel According to John 4.20-22 "Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain,but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem". Jesus said to her,"Woman believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem." Here we find Jesus teaching us the way of true worship.One of the practices followed from time immemorial is that we choose a place to worship God.We construct a beautiful building with lots of architecture and decorations and dedicate it to God.And we keep the place sacred and sanctified.It is never used for any other purpose.The place is called the house of God.Similarly the woman is telling Jesus that her ancestors were worshipping on the mountain.That is true.Mountain is a rising place where the presence of God can be felt immediately and it is easy to raise our heart and head to God.Jesus does not contradict this.And He speaks of a loftier place in Jerusalem specially constructed to wor...