July 20
Our Lady of Grace at Picpus
Fauborg Saint Antoine
of Paris (1629)
Gospel: Matthew 12:38-42
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| Image created using Google AI Image Creator. |
Today’s Gospel
has the scribes and Pharisees demanding a sign from Jesus, and He refuses to do
so on command, offering instead only the “Sign of Jonah”, three days in the belly
of the whale, foreshadowing His own death and resurrection. The sign they
wanted wasn’t the sign that Jesus offered to them.
We do
something similar when we tell God exactly what kind of proof would satisfy us,
heal this specific way, answer this specific prayer by this specific date, and
then we’ll really believe. Jesus doesn’t negotiate on those terms. The real
sign was never going to be the spectacle people demanded; it was the deeper
pattern of death giving way to life, playing out on God’s timing, not ours.
Stop waiting
for the specific sign you’ve been requesting and look instead for the pattern
Jesus actually offers, death giving way to resurrection, endings becoming
beginnings, the three days in the dark that always seem to precede something
new. That pattern is happening in your life right now somewhere, even if it
doesn’t look like the sign you asked for.
Today, the
Marian calendar talks about Our Lady of Grace at Picpus, in the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine of Paris, 1629. grace was given, it was not demanded, and it was not
earned through a test. Our Lady never asked for a sign before saying yes to the
angel; she simply trusted. Something to think about today: What sign have you
been demanding from God, instead of completely trusting in Him, that He will
answer the prayers in your life, in His time and in His will for you?
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.
