Warning Signs
Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Reading signs is not always as easy as Jesus is making it sound, though seeing a rain cloud and predicting it is going to rain, or feeling a south wind and predicting it will get hot might be a lot easier than reading our children and spouses. We might have a fairly good idea what those of our own household and among our friends will be doing the next 24 hours, but like weather forecasters can make big mistakes, so can we when it comes to predicting what people will do, even those closest to us, Do we know for sure what we ourselves will be doing a few hours or minutes from now?
Situations change, moods change, attitudes reverse themselves with the winds. But that does not mean we should not try to read signs that indicate what is coming down. Especially when it concerns things that have to do with our souls. When we find ourselves walking a path that is however subtly leading us away from Christ we must stop in our tracks and take stock of our situation. And then for own good, and quite possibly for the good of others, change course. There are values and ways in our world that are very much unlike those of Christ. We must learn to read the signs of their moving into our lives or our moving towards them, and do what we have to do in order to protect our souls.
“When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say immediately that rain is coming,” says Jesus, “and so it does. When the wind blows from the south, you say it is going to be hot, and so it is. If you can interpret the signs of earth and sky, why can you not interpret the present time?”
You and I might not be able to read well the signs that indicate what is going to happen on a global scale, but I think we can read what will happen to us if we don’t take charge of our lives and walk the path of Christ. Check often to see signs of any clouds that might be moving into your life.
