Monday July 23
FAITH AND SIGNS
Introduction
God calls the Hebrew people before his court and asks them to justify their conduct. How have they answered his love? The prophet uses a style which the Reproaches (Improperia) of Good Friday imitate.
In the gospel the scribes and the Pharisees demand signs. The Hebrews had failed to see the sign of God in the fact that he had quietly led them to freedom and made them into a people. The scribes fail to recognize God in the message and person of Jesus, in his service, loyalty, and love. God is not a God of publicity. His presence is discreet. The sign of Jonas was that the Ninivites believed his preaching; the three days in the belly of the fish as a reference to the three days of Jesus in the tomb may be a later addition.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
in times of anguish and desolation
we sometimes call for signs and miracles
that assure us of your presence.
Forgive us our presumption
and give us a faith strong enough
to recognize you at work in nature,
in the ordinary events of life
and in the goodness and service of people.
We entrust ourselves to you
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Reading 1 MI 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 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.”v
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
Alleluia 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.”
Intentions
– For open minds and hearts, that we may believe in God and see the presence of God’s goodness and love in nature and in the good people do, we pray:
– For faith in the gospel and in the person of Jesus when we see how people try to bring his justice and mercy into our world, we pray:
– For gratitude that God has given us the Jewish people as our ancestors and great source of faith, we pray.
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
we bring this bread and this wine before you
and we ask you:
Give us eyes of faith to believe
that in these bare, simple signs
your Son can make himself present
and give himself to us
as the one who serves and shares.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
you have won our love
through your Son Jesus Christ,
who died that we might live.
Through him, give us too
the faith and the quiet strength
to serve with a discreet love.
In this way we can perhaps be
the sign of your presence among people.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Blessing
God asks us why we don’t see the signs of his presence and work among us. If only we had enough faith! May God open our eyes and bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary
The people of Jesus’ time were avid for ‘signs and wonders’. There was a belief that the new age (the messianic times) would be ushered in with marvelous signs. People’s imaginations were on fire (as indeed are ours today!) for new things. This easily degenerates into a desire for entertainment. Rabbi Eliezer was said to have made rivers flow backwards, displaced trees.... Naturally, people expected something similar from Jesus. “No sign will be given to this wicked generation,” he told them, “but the sign of Jonah!” Matthew seems to have interpreted this very fancifully, comparing the “three days and three nights” that Jesus was to spend in the tomb (factually inaccurate) with the three days and nights that Jonah spent in the whale’s belly. (Luke 11:29-32 does not make this comparison.) Jonah himself was the sign to the Ninevites. Jesus is saying, “You are seeking a sign – I am God’s sign! These are words we need to hear again today. Like Jesus’ contemporaries we look for signs and wonders: moving or bleeding statues, rosaries turning to gold...! But Jesus said that no sign would be given us but himself. It must be that we are inventing these things out of our own imaginations!
