(Feria Quarta infra Hebdomadam XX post Octavam Pentecostes)
Readings: Ephesians 5:15–21; John 4:46–53
“See therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly: not as unwise, but as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
— Ephesians 5:15–16
“The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way.”
— John 4:50
✠ Redeeming the Time in an Age of Evil
Holy Mother Church, in this week of quiet ferial days after the liturgical crescendo of Michaelmas and preceding the Ember Days of Advent’s approach, sets before us a double lesson of vigilance and faith. The Apostle warns us soberly: “redeem the time, because the days are evil.” And the Gospel offers us the healing of the nobleman’s son in Cana, wrought by the power of a word believed.
These readings strike the soul with a particular clarity in our own times, when evil presses in with a vulgar boldness. St. Paul, addressing the Ephesians, exhorts them not merely to live, but to walk circumspectly—that is, with spiritual discernment, attentive to God’s will, avoiding the snares of sin and the enticements of vanity. “The days are evil,” not only in the sense of persecution or immorality, but in that they are full of distraction, drawing souls away from the one thing necessary.
St. Jerome comments on this passage, saying:
“To redeem the time is to purchase eternity by rightly using time, for what is time but the price of eternity?”
— Commentary on Ephesians
Thus, the Christian must consider each hour not merely as a burden to endure, but as a grace to be sanctified, through prayer, work, and spiritual attentiveness.
✠ The Healing Word: Faith Before Sight
In the Gospel from John 4, the nobleman comes in distress. His son is dying. He seeks Christ not for lofty doctrine or hidden wisdom, but for the life of his child. He represents all who come to the Lord not with polished theology, but with a desperate heart.
Our Lord, in His divine pedagogy, tests the man’s faith:
“Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe.”
Yet the man persists, and then comes the turning point:
“Go thy way, thy son liveth.”
And St. John records: “The man believed the word that Jesus had spoken to him.”
St. Augustine, pondering this moment, says:
“The word of God, even before the miracle is seen, is the miracle. For he believed before he saw, and so merited to see.”
— Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 16
This faith — obedient, confident, childlike — is precisely the model given to us in this week’s Liturgy. In the midst of a world obsessed with proof, spectacle, and immediacy, the nobleman walks away with nothing but Christ’s word, and it is enough. He does not remain to see the healing happen; he returns home, trusting.
✠ Drunken with the Holy Spirit
Returning to Ephesians, St. Paul offers the Christian the true source of joy: not the wine that dulls the senses, but the Holy Ghost, who enlightens.
“Be not drunk with wine…but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns…”
In a society soaked in pleasures that distract and debase, the Apostle invites us to a higher inebriation—that of the divine praises, of the interior life, and the sober intoxication of grace, as St. Ambrose so richly puts it:
“He who is filled with the Holy Spirit speaks the language of God; his thoughts are psalms, his breath is praise, his soul sings even in silence.”
— De Spiritu Sancto, Book II
✠ A Rule of Life for Midweek Christians
On this quiet Wednesday feria, far from the crowds of feast days or the penitential austerity of fasts, the Church whispers to us a rule of life:
- Walk carefully and attentively.
- Redeem your time, for every moment can become eternal.
- Believe the word of Christ, even when the signs are yet unseen.
- Sing psalms in your heart, giving thanks always.
- Be sober, yet filled with the joy of the Spirit.
Let us take these words not as abstract ideals, but as marching orders for the ordinary days, when the spiritual life is forged not in fire, but in faithfulness.
And may the Blessed Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom and Cause of our Joy, teach us to walk wisely, trust fully, and rejoice always in the Lord.
✠ “Giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father.”
— Ephesians 5:20
✠ Suggested Prayer for the Day
Prayer to Redeem the Time
O Lord, teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto wisdom. May I walk before Thee in vigilance and gratitude, redeeming the time, and believing Thy holy word. Grant that I may not seek signs, but rather the simplicity of faith, like the nobleman of Cana. Let my lips speak Thy praise, and my heart ever rejoice in Thy presence. Amen.