[Officium]
Dominica XX Post Pentecosten

[Oratio]
Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to John
!John 4:46-53
At that time: There was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. And so on.
_
Homily by Pope St. Gregory (the Great.)
!28th Homily on the Gospels
My brethren, the passage from the Holy Gospel, which ye have just now heard, standeth in need of no explanation. But lest I should seem to pass the same by in idle silence, I will say somewhat thereon, but that rather by way of exhortation than of explanation. Indeed, there seemeth to me to be but one point which calleth for explanation, and that point is this Wherefore was it that when the nobleman went unto the Lord, and besought Him that He would come down and heal his son, Jesus said unto him: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” The very fact that he had come to beseech Christ to heal his son, putteth it beyond all doubt that this nobleman believed if he had not believed Him to be a Saviour, he would not have asked Him to save his son. Wherefore then said Jesus unto him: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe,” since he was one who had not seen, and yet had believed?

[Lectio8]
But bethink you what was his prayer, and then shall ye understand clearly wherein his faith was shaky. He “besought Him that He would come down and heal his son.” He asked for the bodily presence of Him Who is spiritually always present everywhere. He believed not therefore enough in Christ, for he thought that He could not heal unless He were bodily present. Had his faith been perfect, he would doubtless have known that God is everywhere.

[Lectio9]
This was therefore a grievously imperfect faith, in attributing the virtue not to Christ's Majesty, but to His bodily presence. Thus it was that his faith was still unsound, even while he was asking for his son's health. For, though he believed concerning Him unto Whom he came that He was mighty to save, yet he thought also that at that moment He was absent from his dying child. But the Lord, being asked to go, showed that, wherever He is called on, He is there, and being He Who, by a simple act of will, brought all things into being, gave health by a simple command.
&teDeum

[Ant 2]
There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick * at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come into Galilee, he besought Him that He would heal his son.

[Ant 3]
So the father knew * that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said “Thy son liveth.” And he himself believed, and his whole house.