Signs & wonders

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Gospel: John 4:43-54
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033125.cfm

The message of Jesus transcends the miracles he performed, but the miracles he performed allowed for people to listen and hear the message. We too need some sort of divine encounter to drive our faith. Experiences of love and of suffering help open us up to God. God’s presence was always there, but we did not know it. It took a catalyst for us to recognize it. While our perception is of something new, it’s not new; it’s only new to us as now we’re rightfully equipped to see it.

God wants us to love God and to love our neighbors. Love goes beyond mere actions or external representations. Love is inside us and it is made known through external actions. External actions are reminders to us on what is underneath, but it’s not what is underneath. God is the love that is underneath.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to have both; a strong interior relationship with God that makes itself known by how we treat others. If we don’t have both, how are others going to find God? If others don’t have it, how are we to find God? Yes, we can experience God directly and through creation, but more often than not, we encounter God through each other. We are created in the image of God so we point to God. We can find God through others as they can find God through us. The God within us is made known through the love we share.

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