18 July 2022
Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In the Gospel today, some of the scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign and instead receive a seemingly mysterious and ominous reply. Jesus’ reference to the Son of Man spending three days and nights in the heart of the earth foreshadows His own impending Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Moreover, the reference He makes to the repentance of Nineveh is a not-so-subtle implication of the dire need for a similar level of repentance in Israel.
The apparent harshness of Jesus’ comments is directed specifically at the attitudes of those asking for a sign. Let’s be clear on this point: they were not asking for a sign because their hearts were open and they wanted to learn more about growing deeper in relationship with God. Rather, their hearts were so completely hardened and closed that they were utterly incapable of recognizing the Incarnation of the living God, their very Creator, standing in their midst face to face. They asked for a sign because they had already made up their minds to publicly undermine, discredit, and incriminate Jesus in spite of the healings He had performed, the demons He had driven out, and the outstanding light and truth of the doctrines He had revealed to the people on so many occasions.
The lesson for us today is to be vigilant in guarding against a similar hardening of heart in the context of our own lives. It’s so incredibly easy to get comfortable and/or set in our ways of perceiving, thinking, and living such that we sometimes are unable to recognize God even when He appears right in front of our faces. Are we able to properly appreciate the incredible gift that God gives us each moment that we draw breath? Do we perceive the innate, created goodness and dignity of each and every person that we encounter? Are we capable of recognizing and responding to the ways that God continuously challenges us to grow in love and virtue each day of our lives? Let us pray for the grace to have gentle, humble hearts that are always open and attentive to the ways that God desires to reveal Himself to us.