Wednesday – 1st Week of Lent

Gospel – Luke 11: 29-32

Give Me A Sign

Mount Carmel, Israel

Major floods and bitter cold!  Windstorms and blizzards with record=breaking snowfall! Millions without power! Nations rising up in armed conflict against others! People uprooted from their homes and snatched off the street!  It sounds like something out of one of the Old Testament prophets.  But the bleak words we hear are from today’s Gospel!

People complaining to God – give me a sign!  Is this it?  Is this the end? It all seems rather hopeless!  The crowds keep demanding for a sign.  But when signs are given, they are ignored.  It feels almost as if Jesus is speaking directly to us today and His words resonate with all that we are dealing with today: political in-fighting, hatred, racial unrest, anger and bitterness, selfishness, war and violence and a lack of basic kindness.  Is it any wonder that people are demanding a sign from above – show me things will get better!  But that demand also displays a certain lack of faith in God, a trust that He has a plan and we need a bit of patience and trust!

Maybe what we really need is to flip things around!  What if it’s God saying those words!  Give me a sign!!  Show me that you still trust Me!  Show Me a bit of faith and confidence!  Show Me that you still believe!  Are you still praying?  Are you still looking out for your neighbors?  Are you still noticing the good in the world and not being overwhelmed by the bad?  Are you still hoping that today will be a better day?  Do you still see Me and acknowledge My presence in your life?  Do you take comfort in the words of Scripture?  In the Gospel parables? In the Eucharist?

Are you still there?  Do you still believe in Me?  Do you still place your trust in Me?  Do you still love Me?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  Feast of the Presentation Gospel – Luke 2:22-40 We Are Family Church of St. Joseph, Nazareth 5 extremely short stories to start the day! Once all the people in a village decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer, all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella. That is faith. When you throw babies in the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them. That is trust. Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but we still set the alarm to wake up. That is hope. We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future. That is confidence. We see the world suffering, but still, we get married and have children. That is love. Faith, hope, love, confidence and trust!   Sounds like a perfect list of values/virtues for a happy family! Today’s Gospel tells us of another family – the Holy Family going up to Jerusalem with the baby Jesus to present Him to the Lord in ...
Read more
Image
  Second Sunday of Easter   Gospel – John 20:19-31 Faith and Family Us Decades ago, when Jaime was maybe 7 or 8 years old, I was having some stomach issues, bad enough to spend some time in the hospital to figure out what was going on.   Finally, one morning, with Jaime and Ginger in the room, the doctor comes rushing in to tell me in these overly blunt words – you have cancer, we will perform surgery today and start you on chemo treatments tomorrow!   After I got over the initial shock, I basically had 2 reactions!   First, how dare you blurt out such a diagnosis with our little daughter in the room without even consulting us beforehand.   How disrespectful! How insensitive!   And secondly, my personal health, or lack thereof, was the last thing on my mind.   All that mattered to me was Ginger and Jaime and how all this would affect them! Some things never change!   Truth be told, after all that stress and worry, his diagnosi...
Read more
Image
Tuesday - Third Week of Easter Gospel – John 6:30-35 Knead to Know Cooking Class Over the past month or so, I gathered together a couple groups of my altar servers for a cooking class!   They learned not only my recipe for zucchini chocolate chip muffins but how to make them from scratch!   And, YES, they took home their finished products, or at least the muffins they didn’t wolf down as soon as they came out of the oven!   It was a fun, wonderful (and messy) experience!   Who knew that cracking eggs and measuring out flour could be so ‘untidy’.   But it brought home the lesson that, in order to get those yummy muffins, it takes time, effort and a heaping cup of patience. And it reminded me not only of their loyal service but those long months of Covid when they missed their Mass ministry.   So from time to time during the pandemic, I stayed in touch with them by dropping off goodie bags filled with chocolate chip cookies, zucchini chocolate ...
Read more