Monday 20, 2020

Readings: Micah 6: 1 – 4, 6 – 8; Responsorial Psalm: 50; Gospel: Matthew: 12: 38 – 42

Jesus in today’s reading invites us to recognise and believe in the love his death and resurrection is a sign of. This is, to use Saint John’s words, Jesus’ love of each of us is to the utmost extent or “to the end” or to death. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Believing that Jesus loves us in such a passionate way involves a huge change of mind and heart or of the way we see and feel about Jesus, ourselves and others.

Like the scribes and the Pharisees, we would love to have a sign that would remove the need to believe and trust that God is speaking to us in and through Jesus. Yet, as elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus has only one sign to give us – himself after the Resurrection. That is the supreme sign of the Father’s confirmation of his words and of all he stands for.  

Jesus compares himself to Jonah, the prophet who preached conversion. Moreover, he claims he is even greater than Jonah, than the wise Solomon, so that our resistance to conversion will be our condemnation. Elsewhere, Jesus says that he will sit in judgement on the nations at the end. 

True Christians are signs that the world can see, and so come to know Jesus. People see Jesus through you and me. As Christians, as the Church, we are always to witness to God’s saving mercy.

My prayer time can train the eye of my heart to recognise God at work in my life. As you I become more familiar with and trusting in God’s Spirit, I need less proof and am able to rely on what I have learnt. 

God Bless.  Have a wonderful week.