In today’s Gospel (Luke 12:54–59), Jesus offers the crowd two images: weather and plea bargains. Using the first image, Jesus upbraids the crowds for failing to recognize the significance of the present moment. God himself walks among them as man, casting out demons, curing the sick, and teaching with authority; all the crowds need to do is take real notice of these things, and they will know the time of salvation has come, just as easily as they can tell it will rain when clouds appear in the sky. Using the second image, that of a plea bargain, Jesus urges them to repentance; if they repent now, they will be saved, but if they wait until judgment comes, it will be too late.
Like the crowd of Jesus’ day, we can be just as oblivious—and willfully so—to the ways that the Lord is speaking to us, even though those are quite plain. Like the crowd, we can look for “signs and wonders” to show us God’s will, when all we need to do is stop and recognize what the Lord is already saying and doing in our lives, whether in our prayer, in the events of each day, or the quiet interior movements of our hearts.
Today, let us pray for the gift of true discernment, so that instead of seeking “signs and wonders” we might see the ways God is already speaking to us; and when we come to see and hear God’s word to us, we pray to respond in faith and love.