Wednesday, First Week of Lent

In the gospel reading Jesus shows his frustration with his contemporaries who insist that he displays the kind of signs that will make it easy for them to believe in him. In reality, signs of God’s powerful presence have been very much in evidence through the ministry of Jesus. He has been revealing God’s merciful and healing love through his deeds and his teaching. Jesus contrasts the response of some of his contemporaries to himself with the response of people to God’s anointed ones in the Jewish Scriptures. The Queen of the south was a pagan, and yet she came from far away to hear the wisdom of Solomon. The people of Nineveh were pagans and, yet, as is clear from the first reading, they responded generously to the preaching of the prophet Jonah. Yet, here is Jesus, someone greater than either Solomon or Jonah, and his own Jewish people are not responding to him unless their demand for more signs is met. Someone greater than either Solomon or Jonah, or any of the kings and prophets of Israel, stands among us today. The risen Lord is present to us in the Eucharist, in his word, in the community of believers, and deep within our own hearts. He has already given us so many signs of his loving presence. We don’t need to ask for more signs. Rather, what we need is a greater openness to the many ways that he comes to us every day of our lives. The Lord is always among us, full of God’s gracious and faithful loving presence, and he calls out to us to keep receiving from his fullness.