23 March 2020
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
Jesus returns to Cana, where earlier He had changed water to wine. No one saw the miracle, but clearly people had heard about it. No doubt much of the town had the opportunity to taste this excellent wine; after all, Jesus had made anywhere between the equivalent of 101 and 151 modern-day bottles of wine! “Taste and see that the LORD is good,” Psalm 34:9 says, yet they come to Jesus wanting to see something more: what had occurred at the wedding was not enough to open their eyes to the Truth. Hence Jesus’ exasperated statement.
Later, to a doubting Thomas who refused to believe what he did not himself see, Jesus would say, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed, (John 20:29). In other words, blessed are those who chose to see with there hearts, rather than with eyes of flesh, who “walk by faith, not by sight,” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Why is this so important? It is because Jesus did not come to convince our eyes; Satan can do that just as well, for the eye is easily fooled. St. Ignatius of Loyola says in the Spiritual Exercises that “It is characteristic of the evil angel, who takes on the appearance of an angel of light, to enter by going along the same way as the devout soul and then to exit by his own way with success for himself. That is, he brings good and holy thoughts attractive to such an upright soul and then strives little by little to get his own way, by enticing the soul over to his own hidden deceits and evil intentions,” (#332).
Indeed, St. Gemma Galgani experienced this for herself when, once, Satan “…appeared to [Gemma] in the form of an angel, resplendent with light, insinuating himself with the most subtle cunning so as to throw her off her guard. Then, as with Eve in the Garden of Eden, he depicted things in falsest colors. ‘Look here,’ he said, ‘I can make thee happy if only thou wilt swear to obey me.’ Gemma, who this time did not feel in her soul the usual disturbance indicating the presence of the demon, stood listening with her wonted simplicity. But God came to her aid. On the first wicked proposal of the miscreant her eyes were opened. She started up, exclaiming: ‘My God! Mary Immaculate! Make me die rather!’ And with these words she rushed at the feigned angel and spat in his face. At the same moment she saw him vanish in the form of fire,” (The Life of St. Gemma Galgani, pg. 186).
Satan can easily fool the eyes, but as St. Gemma teaches us, he cannot so easily fool the heart: this is why Jesus does not seek to win us over by spectacle, but by Truth and Love. He desires to open the eyes of the human heart, to dispel the blindness there that can keep our whole selves in darkness. Jesus desires us to see and believe that He is the Son of God, but He desires it not to be based on something incredible that we have seen, but rather on a radical conversion of heart. Notice the father in our Gospel today: he begs Jesus to come to his house before his son dies. Jesus merely states “You may go; your son will live.” No miracle was seen, no spectacle, but “the man believe what Jesus said to him and left,” walking home by faith, not by sight, and his son was alive and well when he returned home. Indeed, blessed are those who do not see, and believe.