Aware of the Signs

What is missing in the vision and hearing of the generation to which Jesus addresses himself as recorded today in the Gospel of Luke from the Roman Catholic Lectionary? The Book of Jonah tells of the consequence of the visit of Jonah to the city of Nineveh, in reluctant and delayed obedience to the message of God. The sign of Jonah prompts the desire of the population to return to the intimate understanding of the Divine in their lives. The great psalm of the return of the repentant to the Lord declares that by the teaching and example of the one who has had a change of heart many will return to the invitation to intimacy in the Divine. Luke appears to identify that many remain to be touched by the example of those in the past and now those in the present who are responding to the “Follow Me” of Jesus to the intimate communion of indwelling Spirit and the Divine Presence. The call is to wake up and use the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving to generate the inner disposition to be aware of the signs all around us.