“You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time” (Lk 12:56).

Reading this verse brought two memories from my childhood. The first one is from when my friend Steve and I had a general interest in the weather, reading the natural signs and the patterns, and we enjoyed watching our local weather forecaster, Hilton Kaderli. Another memory was with my cousin Danny. We were at my Uncle Pierre and Aunt Claudette’s house one afternoon and we saw a storm rising. We headed to the road and started running as fast as we could in the opposite direction to see how far we could get before the storm caught us, and when it did we walked home, sucking in air, being pelted by the rain, and enjoyed a good soaking. We read the signs of the earth and the sky, but we didn’t pay to much attention to things of the spirit.

Jesus made a wake up call to his listeners. What Jesus was doing: teaching and preaching on his own authority, not from the training of a learned Pharisee or rabbi; casting out demons, forgiving sins, healing people, meeting with sinners and women. These were some pretty amazing signs that the Messiah was in their midst, yet there were those who did not see, would not see, rationalized away that he could not be who he said he was. Though there were those who did see, did hear, did believe.

Because they did so, some two thousand years later, Jesus speaks to us again. The stories and encounters of Jesus have been preserved, passed on generation after generation. Do we see his presence working in our lives? Do we see coincidences or God-incidents? May we take some time today to be still for five or ten minutes, to take some deep breaths and ask God to help us in reviewing the past twenty four hours so we can acknowledge what we are grateful for, to recall some God-incidents no matter how small, to admit to the times in which we may have said no to some of his invitations to reach out beyond our self to another. Let us ask Jesus to help us to be aware of how much the Holy Spirit has been present in our experiences and thank him. For those times that we have refused his presence or failed to recognize his closeness, especially from others seeking help, we can ask for his forgiveness and assistance to be more aware, to more intentional tomorrow.

Link for today’s Mass readings:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102717.cfm

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