These are wonderful readings today!
In the gospel passage Jesus tells not only the religious leaders of his day and ours, but all of us, to “read the signs of the times.” He says that if you know how to forecast the weather - and with The Weather Channel we have that down to a highly developed science - then why should it be any more difficult to forecast the things that have to do with your salvation, and the events that are going to happen on the Last Day - when the weather will be unlike that of any other day in history?
The reason is that one is on the level of nature, and the other is on the level of faith - the supernatural level. And many presuppose that anything on the supernatural level is suspect, optional and for eccentrics.
You hypocrites! Jesus calls any who are unwilling to read the signs of the times - you hypocrites!
One sign of the times - which has been so since the fall of mankind - is the off-centeredness of the human body and mind. The Evil one was given power to distort, and play a certain amount of havoc with our bodies and minds - all in an attempt to make us believe that God does not love us, that he will not take care of us, that he will not redeem us - that coming over to the side of Evil was the best option for us! But the higher part of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve - the supernatural part was given a promise of hope, a promise of a redeemer and thus given a weapon to deal with this Evil influence!
St. Paul tells the Romans that - even though Jesus had died to obtain salvation and the forgiveness of sin; even though the very real possibility of living more and more a transformed human life is at hand - he, himself, still had difficulty in getting his body to do what his spirit told it it should be doing!
This simply proves that the residue of Original Sin still survives - and will survive until the Last Day. But, especially in our own day there is an emphasis on the Redemption of the whole person: body, mind and spirit - which is brilliantly formulated and summarized in Pope John Paul the Great’s “Theology of the Body.” This theology is a complete approach to a study of God, ourselves and our relationship with him and with one another.
The entire body, John Paul tells us, is redeemed by Christ! meaning that we can ally the body, by means of the Spirit who also dwells deeply within us: the gift of the Father and Son after the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. This means inviting the Spirit to release his gifts more and more into our souls each day - so that we can consider ourselves not as miserable ones - but rather blessed ones - gifted ones - people who are meant to make a difference in the lives of other people - by loving them with God’s own love.
The more we do this - the more the power of the Evil one is reduced - until the Day when he is vanquished, defeated and destroyed for ever!
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
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