The scribes and Pharisees constantly were demanding that Jesus give them a "sign" that he was the Son of God.  Somehow, seeing Jesus restore sight to the blind, making the lame walk and raising the dead back to life weren't enough to make them believe His claim of divinity.  Despite performing numerous miracles, Jesus's response was always the same though -- no sign will be given, except His coming death and resurrection.  The Gospels recount several instances of this:

"Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, 'Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.'  He said to them in reply, 'An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.  Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights."  (Matthew 12:38-40; see also 16:4)

"While still more people gathered in the crowd, he said to them, "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah."  (Luke 11:29; see also 11:16)

"At this the Jews answered and said to him, 'What sign can you show us for doing this?'  Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."  (John 2:18-19).

Almost two thousand years later, nothing has changed.  Like the scribes and Pharisees then, we often demand signs or some sort of end-all, be-all proof that Jesus was who He claimed to be.  Several months ago, I had a secular-progressive friend (and fallen-away Catholic) say to me "I just wish God left more definitive evidence that he exists."  My response was rhetorical and went something like: "You mean Jesus coming back to life three days after being tortured to death isn't enough evidence?"  I then expounded on that point, explaining how Jesus's resurrection is the only plausible explanation for the sudden rise and vast expansion of Christianity over most of the known world by the end of the first century, despite the fact that it was illegal and punishable by death.

St. Augustine beautifully explains what Jesus's resurrection means for us in this context:  "Out of his mercy . . . He [did not] hide from us His truth.  The Truth, clad in flesh, came to us and healed through His flesh the inner eye of our heart, that afterward we might be able to see Him face to face."

We have a great advantage over the scribes and Pharisees who demanded a sign during Jesus's earthly ministry.  Whereas Jesus merely spoke to them about the ultimate sign of his coming passion, death and resurrection in foreshadowing, symbolic language (i.e. being in the "heart of the earth for three days and three nights" and raising the "temple" three days after being destroyed), for us, His resurrection and victory over sin and death is a reality that allows us to "see Him face to face."

Once we accept the reality of Christ's passion, death and resurrection, ask His forgiveness, and accept His mercy, "signs" of His divinity and God's existence begin to pop up all around us.  Driving home from work one evening last week, I looked up into the sky and noticed the sun breaking through the clouds in a way I had never seen before.  Although it was almost completely overcast, small breaks in the clouds had allowed multiple individual rays to beam down all the way to the ground.  It truly was one of the most beautiful, majestic things I have ever seen.  I immediately realized that I was looking at a small piece of heaven, and that only a God who would take flesh and die in order to redeem humanity could (and would) create such beauty.

I find that such occurrences - "signs" -  happen almost every day: the smile of my four month old son, the sound of the rain and thunder during a stormy night, a humming bird getting nectar from a flower on my back porch, the quiet stillness of a candle flame lit early in the morning.  These signs, and so many others, remind me daily of God's love.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church ("CCC") states this perfectly:

"As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols.  God speaks to man through the visible creation.  The material cosmos is so presented to man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator.  Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness."  (CCC 1146 - 1147)

When I'm cooperating with God's grace, maintaining a relationship with Him through prayer, and keeping His commandments, I see God in the most simple things of creation.  He's there, speaking to me, reminding me of His constant presence.  The signs are everywhere.  But in times when my heart and intellect are darkened by sin; when I turn my back on God's love and mercy, the signs seem to disappear.  Instead of seeing God in everything, I -- by my own choice -- see Him in nothing.  In fact, like Adam and Eve after the fall, I try to hide from God, desperately hoping that he won't see me in my nakedness.  Perhaps that is why the scribes and Pharisees were unable to recognize any signs and miracles Jesus performed -- their hearts simply were too hardened to accept them.

It is during those dark times, however, that we must turn back to the ultimate sign -- Jesus's passion, death and resurrection -- for that likely is the only sign we will be able to recognize.  And we have but to ask for His mercy, for as Jesus tell us "[a]sk and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."  (Matthew 7:7)  So if you are having trouble recognizing God's presence, seeing His majesty in creation, feeling His love in your everyday life, don't demand, as did the scribes and Pharisees, that He give you a sign.  Instead, start over from the beginning and remember the only sign that matters.  In the words of St. Josemaria Escriva, "[m]ay you seek Christ, may you find Christ, may you love Christ.  These are three very distinct steps.  Have you at least tried to live the first one?"

 

 

 

One of the phrases we've all heard is "come on in, the water is great!"  The phrase can be used in a variety of contexts, but in its most practical sense, it is meant to reassure the listener that the water in a pool, lake or the ocean is comfortable and won't be painfully cold if and when he or she decides to get it.  In my experience, however, most people are unwilling to accept the statement purely on faith and jump into the water, no matter how trustworthy the speaker (who is already in the water) may be.  Instead, it seems much safer to dip a toe into the water first to check out the temperature for ourselves.  Even then, many of us prefer to enter the water gradually rather than jump in.

This phrase came to mind recently as I was reading  St. John's Gospel.  In Chapter 21, St. John records an appearance of our Risen Lord in Galilee, at the Sea of Tiberias, to seven of the apostles, including Peter, John (the "disciple whom Jesus loved") and Thomas.  In the account, Peter decides to go fishing one night, accompanied by the six other apostles.  The fish weren't biting that night, and St. John tell us that the apostles "caught nothing."  (John 21:3).  As dawn broke, while the apostles were still in the boat, Jesus--whom they did not recognize yet--called to them from the shore asking if they had "caught anything to eat."  (John 21:4-5).  When they answer "no," Jesus tells them to cast their net over the right side of the boat, and upon so doing "they were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish."  (John 21:5-6).  The following verses are what really caught my attention:

"So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.'  When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea.  The other disciples came in the boat, for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards, dragging the net with the fish."  (John 21:7-9).

Once Peter realized it was Jesus on the shore, he dove into the sea without hesitation in order to get to his (our) Lord.  St. John tell us that the boat was "only about a hundred yards" from the shore, but that certainly isn't an insignificant distance--just think of swimming the length of a football field.  Peter obviously had no concern about the distance or the temperature of the water.  At that moment, all he cared about was getting to Jesus as quickly as possible in order to be in His presence.

As I reflected on  these verses, I immediately thought of another instance from Sacred Scripture where Peter was in a boat and saw Jesus--the "walking on water" account from St. Matthew's Gospel.  There, the apostles were also in a boat without Jesus.  Later that night, the wind picked up and began to toss the boat about.  St. Matthew then tells us:

"During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea.  When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.  'It is a ghost,' they said, and they cried out in fear.  At once [Jesus] spoke to them, 'Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.'  Peter said to him in reply, 'Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.'  He said 'Come."  Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.  But when he saw how [strong] the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me!'  Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?'"  (Matthew 14:25-31)

Obviously, the circumstances surrounding this account are different from that of Peter jumping into the sea in St. John's Gospel.  But the similarities in the stories are significant enough to notice the stark difference in Peter's reactions.  Unlike in John 21, Peter here has great hesitation, first wanting confirmation that it is in fact Jesus he sees on the water.  Only upon Jesus saying "come" does Peter get out of the boat.  I can envision Peter slowly climbing over the edge of the boat at that point, hesitant to leap into the water or take that first step toward our Blessed Lord.  Even after being given the miraculous ability to walk on the water for a time, Peter was unable to set aside his doubts and fears and continue moving towards Jesus.  As He does with us so often, it was only Jesus reaching out his hand and catching Peter that saved him from sinking.

Most of my life, I've been the Peter from Matthew 14: scared, hesitant, unwilling to jump out of the boat to get to Jesus.  Even when He has told me "come on in, the water is great," I've preferred to keep one foot in the boat while testing the waters with the other.  It seems much safer to keep one foot in the boat (i.e. the world) and one foot in the water (i.e. the kingdom of God).  At times, I've put both feet in the water or even gradually waded in, only to succumb to my fear and doubt of what a life totally devoted to Christ would cost me, and crawled back into the boat completely.  But as Jesus tells us, "[n]o servant can serve two masters."  (Luke 16:13)  We either stay in the boat or dive in the water--there is no in between.

That is why we must jump completely out of the boat and into the sea for Christ as Peter did in John 21.   But what changed in Peter between Matthew 14 and John 21, and what does it that mean for us?  Remember, the account in Matthew 14 occurred during Jesus's earthly ministry, before His passion, death and resurrection.  Although Peter certainly had seen Jesus perform many miracles by that time and had been given the gift of faith to realize that Jesus was the eternal Son of God, he did not yet understand the fullness of Jesus's mission to conquer sin and death.  (See, e.g. Matthew 16:21-23).  By the time the events in John 21 unfold, however, Peter has already seen and experienced our risen Lord.  Indeed, the risen Jesus had breathed the Holy Spirit onto Peter and the other apostles, sending them forth "as the Father has sent me."  (John 20:21)

It is easy to identify with the Peter of Matthew 14.  Many of us have experienced Jesus in our lives in a variety of ways, maybe even through small miracles here and there.  But although we believe in Christ's divinity and proclaim Him as the Son of God, we might not fully understand or grasp what his death and resurrection mean for us.  Even when we hear Jesus say "come," the world tells us that diving in would be a foolish decision.

In reality, however, we have much more in common with the Peter in John 21.  Jesus has risen!  This is a reality as true today as it was for Peter then.  Further, the Holy Spirit has come and is present, working in our lives if only we let Him.  Indeed, the fullness and glory of Christ's passion, death and resurrection has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit and maintained throughout the ages by the Church that Christ founded.

So staying in the boat simply won't do.   Dipping a toe into the water every now and then won't do.  Even sitting on the edge of the boat with both feet in the water won't do.  No!  Only by diving into the sea to get to Jesus will we reach Him and obtain the graces and true joy He has waiting for us.  Still, the waters may get rough; tribulations, temptations, sufferings will no doubt come.  But we must stay vigilant, for as Fulton Sheen once said: "No one can ever expect to be without trials or crosses, for these are the very condition of victory and incorporation with Him."

These words from Peter's first epistle seem appropriate to end with:

"Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet you believe in him; you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:8-9)

Come on in, the water is great!