29th Week in Ordinary Time 2024 - Friday - Signs of Divine Love

 

With the leaves changing colors, and the still mostly warm days and cooler nights, autumn is my favorite time of year. I made soup yesterday, because something about autumn just cries out for a good bowl of soup and crusty bread. 

Signs of autumn are everywhere: squirrels gathering nuts, pumpkins, light jackets, football games, conversations about where we will be celebrating thanksgiving.

In the Gospel today, Jesus is making his way toward Jerusalem when he comes across a group of non-believers. 

He points out how easily they forecast the weather by observing the signs—clouds and winds. But they were missing something more important than weather.

The signs of the kingdom of God where all around them: loaves being multiplied, the lame walking, hardened sinners repenting, and the good news spreading. Jesus is the sign that things were changing—not just meteorologically, but spiritually. With all these signs of God, Jesus performing  miracles left and right, demons being cast out, the deaf hearing, the blind seeing, the lame walking, the dead being raised, you’d think that people would be able to discern, quite easily, in fact, that they should take Jesus seriously.

But with all these signs many refused to believe, many refused to change their minds and their hearts, and open them up to the fact that Jesus was who he claimed to be: the Son of God come to save us from our sins.

Thankfully, 2000 years later, everyone follows Jesus as they should, right? Well, no, sadly. 

Even with the testimony of the Church---with Christians pouring out their lives in devotion to following Jesus’ teaching, feeding the hungry in soup kitchens, clothing the naked, even with so much evidence that Jesus Christ will change your life for the better, much of the world still does not believe. 

So the task of the Church is to continue to pray, and to continue to provide the world with signs and reasons to believe in Jesus, to be baptized, and follow him—signs of Divine Love—of God’s love for every person and His desire for their eternal salvation.

We are to take this morning’s words of Paul to heart, who writes, “I, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received”, and that call is to witness to Jesus Christ in word and deed, in how we treat people, in how we love each other, in the conviction with live out the teachings of the Gospel, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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For the Church, that we may live in a manner worthy of our calling, bearing witness to Christ through works of mercy and love, showing the world clear signs of God's presence among us.

For the people of the world, so often divided by ideology, that we may be reconciled with one another, addressing conflicts with wisdom and working towards peace

For those who struggle to recognize God's presence in their lives, that they may discover the signs of divine love surrounding them.

For the sick, the suffering, and those who have died, that they may experience the healing and transformative power of Christ, who makes the lame walk and brings life to the dead.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for the repose of the souls of all those who made our reception of the faith possible. 

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.