Overlooked God's Signs?

“Master,” they said, “we should like to see a sign from you.” Their question was silly. Jesus called them “an evil and unfaithful generation.” (See the gospel reading of 16^th Monday, Ordinary Time – Matthew 12:38-42.) How could they ask him for a sign while they were surrounded by the signs he gave them? How strange to miss the greatest sign of all. Wasn’t he God’s sign to them? Have we overlooked God’s signs around us, especially the greatest sign Christ Jesus himself?

Since the Second Vatican Council we have been accustomed to the expression “signs of the times.” It proved to be a term that spoke to the mind of many a theologian. Pope John Paul II has mentioned it in many of his documents. The Salesian Congregation too has used it in many of its official communications.

One of those signs is the situation of poverty and of underdevelopment in which millions of human beings live. This is one of the signs wherein we can find Jesus. He identifies himself with the hungry and naked around us. He gives us that sign.

Are we sensitive to the signs of our times, especially the signs of grief and anxiety around us? All of us should make that grief and anxiety our own, because it is Jesus who identifies with the poor and the downtrodden. Or are we, too, asking for another sign from him? Are the poor the overlooked God's signs?

(Modified from the CD material, Entering the Lectionary.)