THE SIGN

We can not run away from the consequences of our wrongdoings. It will always haunt us unless we truly be sorry for it and repair what we have done. It is always for our own good that we avoid sin and do good for goodness and mercy to follow us all the days of our lives. Amen. Hallelujah!

Genesis 4:1-15, 25
...If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.”


We can never fool God. Let us not be ignorant anymore by knowing and choosing to do the right things always.

Psalms 50:1, 8, 16-17, 20-21
R: Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
...“Why do you recite my statutes, and profess my covenant with your mouth, 17 though you hate discipline and cast my words behind you?”...I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.”


In today's gospel the Pharisees ask for a sign. We are sometimes guilty of this because this is something that we also do when we pray. We may not realize it yet but asking for a sign is an affirmation that our wills be done for us not God’s will. Although there is nothing intrinsically evil about it, we have to be clear that seeking for a sign should not be the motive of prayer. Do we not often times do this when we pray, ask for a sign. The Pharisees look for a sign when they pray because it would give them happiness if God has given a sign. We may then ask ourselves, if God is God then why ask for a sign. He knows all things even before we pray for something because He already knows what we want. God wants us to exercise our desires for it through prayers so that we can be properly disposed in receiving the answers to our prayers. According to St. Augustine, God is preparing us for the gifts that He extends to us that all lead to happiness because our capacity to receive it, is too small. The desire for God is a desire for happiness. The desire for happiness even in secular things is a desire for God ultimately. The desire for God is written in the human heart only in God can we find the truth and happiness that we all desire for. God never ceases to draw man to Himself even in sin. He always gives us an actual grace and never ceases to call man to Himself. Man is called to communion with God as soon as he comes into being as it is written, from the womb I knew you. God has created man in love and through love and holds him into existence in love. We should entrust ourselves to God our Creator because we are called to intimacy with God. The secret of happiness is to spend moment by moment in the knowledge of this love that God has for us. The care and happiness of human life and not their destruction is the 1st and only object of good government according to a saint. The beatitudes should be our response to this natural desire for happiness. This is natural in origin because God Himself placed it in man’s heart that we seek for happiness. God desires greater things for man. St Augustine said that we all seek to live happily and there is no one who does not ascent to this proposition to look for happiness. What we have to realize is that only God can fulfill it. This is ultimately fulfilled as we finally enter heaven and hold forever the beatific vision of God. The foretaste while on earth and still living is possible in this life through the worthy reception of Holy Communion which is the source and summit of the entire Christian life. We should seek God if we seek a happy life. For our bodies and souls draw life from God. God alone satisfies, St. Thomas said. The beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. They are the handmaids of the 10 commandments and the spirit of the law. As we look to Abraham and God's promise, we see the fulfillment of the promises by the recipient of earthly territory. It is no longer and merely earthly as promised to Abraham but ultimately heaven. The beatitudes depict the countenance of our God. The paradoxical promises that proclaim the human hope are evident in the lives Mary and saints who are witnesses of the reward that the beatitudes contain. We can see in them the great rewards of the beatitudes lived and is extended to our family members. The beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence. The ultimate end of the human act which is addressed to the entire humanity. What a gift we have in the beatitudes and the sermon on the mount. St John Vianney said that the glorious duty of man to pray and to love is where a man’s happiness lie as we contemplate on the beatitudes that help us to pray and love both God and man. Amen. Hallelujah!


Mark 8:11-13
11 The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12 He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 13 Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.