Recognizing the Sign

The WORD today (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/071816.cfm) reminds me how important it is to recognize signs. 

Road signs are very important and helpful, especially if one is not familiar with the road. It tells motorists where to go, how to go there, what the rules are, etc. They help keep people safe. However, there are a number of tests and studies that show that a lot of motorists, especially those driving public utility vehicles in our country, do not know the meaning of these signs. Therefore, they lose their purpose. They become useless. Signs would only be useful t if motorists know what they mean and if they are followed properly.

Sometimes, or a lot of times, we want those kinds of tangible signs from God too.

Why not?

Who would not want affirmation or assurance of what God wants us to do in a specific situation? Who would not want what God wants us to choose, or where he wants us to go? Even people in the bible asked for signs from God.

However, it can also be taken out of bounds.

In the gospel we see Jesus warning the people about asking for signs. While it is normal to ask for signs, it becomes bad if the heart is closed to God’s signs. It is bad if the heart wants God to conform to what we want, not for us to be open to what God wants. The people of Nineveh were living in sin, and did not ask for a sign. But when God sent Jonah to warn them, they repented. However, the people already have Jesus with them to warn them and preach to them, but their hearts were closed. They did not want him, they wanted a sign based on their own expectations and standards. They wanted God to conform to what they want, that’s why Jesus said no sign will be given to them.

Signs will only be useful if recognized and followed.

Aside from being open to what the signs tell us, we should also know how to recognize signs. Drivers are supposed to take examinations to familiarize themselves with road signs. If they don't know the meaning, research should be done. Else, signs would be useless. In the same way, we should also exert time and effort to know God more, so we can recognize his answers and his signs for us, and not just recognize what we want and be closed to our idea of signs.

How about us? Do we ask for signs or do what we can – reading the bible, praying, receiving the sacraments, to know what God wants us to do and how God wants us to live our lives? If we ask for signs, are we open and sensitive to get and recognize signs not just based on what we want, but what God wants? Or do we want God to conform to what sign we want from Him?

Father God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another week. Thank you for the reminder. Lord, sorry for the times I am close minded. Sorry for not being open to you and for only wanting specific signs. Sorry for not recognizing you. Lord, I pray that you always make you presence alive in my life. Help me do my part so I will always be sensitive to you. May I work and do my part to build a strong and personal relationship with you, so that I would know you more and recognize you, instead of just asking for signs. Amen.

Blessed week!

In Christ,

-g-

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July 18, 2016
Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 395

Reading 1 Mic 6:1-4, 6-8

Hear what the LORD says:
Arise, present your plea before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice!
Hear, O mountains, the plea of the LORD,
pay attention, O foundations of the earth!
For the LORD has a plea against his people,
and he enters into trial with Israel.

O my people, what have I done to you,
or how have I wearied you? Answer me!
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
from the place of slavery I released you;
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.

With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow before God most high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with myriad streams of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my crime,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
You have been told, O man, what is good,
and what the LORD requires of you:
Only to do the right and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 50:5-6, 8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23

R. (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

Alleluia Ps 95:8

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mt 12:38-42

Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,
“Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
He said to them in reply,
“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign,
but no sign will be given it
except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,
so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth
three days and three nights.
At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah;
and there is something greater than Jonah here.
At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation
and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon;

and there is something greater than Solomon here.”