What Might Be Considered As The Treasury of the Signs of the Time
In the first reading of today Eucharistic Liturgy, we encounter the "Sign of Jonah." From the words of the Prophet Jonah, we learn that the particular "sign" is that of repentance and new life. Upon hearing the prophet's words from Yahweh, warnings of doom and gloom, the king ordered prayer, fasting and other sacrifices with the hopes that Yahweh would not fulfill the destruction of their kingdom as the prophet had warned. Indeed his wisdom and the repentance that he personally led, his nation was spared destruction.
Lenten sacrifices and prayer are no different today ... although no king or president or prime minister is calling the people to prayer, fasting and almsgiving! But our Church and our Catholic tradition are calling us, this year as in each year during the season of Lent, to consider the signs of our times, the signs in our own lives that are either leading us away from God to our own destruction or those signs offering us the pathways to a closer relationship with God and conversion of heart.
Learning the signs of the times and what they signify is the pathway to a genuine, personal strength. It is not the power to overcome others, to become tyrants or dictators. It is the power that enables a closer relationship with God and a strengthened community with those we know or encounter in our daily lives. Coming to understand these signs of the times and all of the signs we learn in our process of education mean for us is useless unless they become a power that reaches out to make life better for ourselves and for our fellow human beings.
For some it is the exercising of "tough love" when there are "signs" that there is such a need in developing our own character or the character of loved ones (one's children or one's students if a person is in a classroom or any kind of coach) or the character of anyone for whom you may have been "authority over" entrusted.
We have heard about the "power of prayer." Consider the "power" we ascribe to the men and women who spend much of their day in monastic prayer. So often in times of trouble or need, these noble souls are petitioned to pray for us because "they have a special connection with the Man upstairs."
Let this Lenten season be a time for taking an updating or renewal course in deepening your understanding of what it means to learn the signs of the times in your personal life. Through personal prayer each day, through a time of purification (the Sacrament of Confession), to delving deeply into the never-ending quest of the Man from LaManche, learning to know oneself better each day we become men and women of great power, great personal, positive power, neither tyrannical nor despotic. It is the power that enables each person to be a teacher that can move the hearts of others to goodness, to hope, to love for one another.
Rooting your faith, your belief, in a genuine personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you will earn your own PhD in reading the signs of the times.
Lenten sacrifices and prayer are no different today ... although no king or president or prime minister is calling the people to prayer, fasting and almsgiving! But our Church and our Catholic tradition are calling us, this year as in each year during the season of Lent, to consider the signs of our times, the signs in our own lives that are either leading us away from God to our own destruction or those signs offering us the pathways to a closer relationship with God and conversion of heart.
Learning the signs of the times and what they signify is the pathway to a genuine, personal strength. It is not the power to overcome others, to become tyrants or dictators. It is the power that enables a closer relationship with God and a strengthened community with those we know or encounter in our daily lives. Coming to understand these signs of the times and all of the signs we learn in our process of education mean for us is useless unless they become a power that reaches out to make life better for ourselves and for our fellow human beings.
For some it is the exercising of "tough love" when there are "signs" that there is such a need in developing our own character or the character of loved ones (one's children or one's students if a person is in a classroom or any kind of coach) or the character of anyone for whom you may have been "authority over" entrusted.
We have heard about the "power of prayer." Consider the "power" we ascribe to the men and women who spend much of their day in monastic prayer. So often in times of trouble or need, these noble souls are petitioned to pray for us because "they have a special connection with the Man upstairs."
Let this Lenten season be a time for taking an updating or renewal course in deepening your understanding of what it means to learn the signs of the times in your personal life. Through personal prayer each day, through a time of purification (the Sacrament of Confession), to delving deeply into the never-ending quest of the Man from LaManche, learning to know oneself better each day we become men and women of great power, great personal, positive power, neither tyrannical nor despotic. It is the power that enables each person to be a teacher that can move the hearts of others to goodness, to hope, to love for one another.
Rooting your faith, your belief, in a genuine personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you will earn your own PhD in reading the signs of the times.
