Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 31, 2025
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.
My wife and I have two adopted children from Haiti. In the final stages of bringing home our first daughter, I traveled to Haiti for a meeting at the US Embassy, where I ensured all our paperwork was in order. At the meeting, I learned the passport photo we had for her was outdated, and we needed a new one before they closed just 2 hours later, or we wouldn’t be able to travel the next day. In most developed countries, this would be easy, but this was Haiti.
After leaving the Embassy, I asked our local contact, Patrick, whether this was a problem. He looked at me and said: “Matt, this is no problem!” After several calls and visits to a few different homes, my daughter had her passport photo, and we headed back to the Embassy just before they closed. The passport was issued, and we began to prepare for the trip home.
Years later, I learned getting this passport photo within a couple of hours was nothing short of a miracle since cameras, printers, photo paper, and ink cartridges were all hard to obtain then. Yet when I heard Patrick tell me this would be easy at the time, I just believed him.
In today’s gospel, the royal official asks Jesus to heal his son, and Jesus does so immediately. The gospel says: “The man believed what Jesus said and left.” The man didn’t ask any questions about the healing or calculate how improbable it was; he simply believed. The official trusted Jesus. I think the Lord often asks us to believe without any proof, signs, or rationale, but we can struggle to do that. Our job is easy; just believe and let the Lord handle the details!
How can we grow our trust and belief in the Lord today? In what ways is Jesus inviting us to simply believe in him?
Prayer
Lord, hear those who call out for healing of body, mind, and spirit. May we unite with the sufferings of our brothers and sisters as they call out for your healing. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Sts. Quirinus and Balbina were a father and daughter who were martyred for their faith in the early Church.
Quirinus was a Roman officer in the army who was tasked to guard the imprisoned Pope Alexander I. In conversation with Alexander, Quirinus stated that he would convert to Christianity if Alexander’s prayer could heal the officer’s daughter, Balbina, from a goiter that afflicted her.
Alexander told her to venerate the chains that held St. Peter, and, since Quirinus knew where Peter had been held, they went there immediately. When Balbina knelt to kiss the shackles, she was cured. They both returned to Alexander and Quirinus had the pope released and pardoned, and asked for baptism for himself and his daughter.
After that, Alexander built a church to hold St. Peter’s chains, which still stands today in Rome.
In 116, Quirinus was arrested and beheaded for his Christian faith. Scholars believe Balbina was arrested and convicted of being Christian and executed in 130. She was buried with Quirinus in the Roman catacombs, and their graves were located in written guides for early Church pilgrims who visited the tombs.
St. Quirinus’ feast day falls on March 30, and St. Balbina’s today. Relics of Quirinus rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. A statue of Balbina, pictured here, stands as one of the 140 statues on the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
Sts. Quirinus and Balbina, you were the father and daughter who both gave your lives for the new faith you found—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Balbina is available for use under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Last accessed February 13, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
