07/19/2004: "Daily Reflection on Scripture"

Think about this statement from today's Gospel reading:

"An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign."

Let that sink in. How often do we, in our prayers, say 'Lord, if I could only have a sign!' We need to remember that it is a sign of our unfaithfulness when we ask for a sign.

I've read a number of pieces on "proving" something about God. Whether He exists or whether Christ was the Son of God, or whatever doesn't matter. What does matter is that if these things can indeed be definitively proven, then there is no belief. I don't believe that my glasses are on my face right now, I know they're there. I can feel them, I can see my vision is improved, I can touch them. Yup, they're there.

There is no faith in something like that (the Matrix movie fans aside). Faith requires something to believe in, not something to know about. A provable sign takes away that Faith. A provable sign transforms faith into fact. Although we may not understand why, I believe that Christ knew what he was saying when he said:

"Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." (John 20:29)

May we all have the faith today not to ask for a sign.