Mt 12:38-42
38Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to [Jesus], “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39He 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. 40Just 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.
41At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. 42At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.”
Reflection:
We wish to see a sign from you. A sign is not the thing itself. It points to something else. The problem is we may get lost in the sign and take it to be the matter itself.
I took my parish children’s choir for an outing to Manila. When we entered the highway where a signpost read “Manila,” with an arrow pointing to the expressway destination about 63 kilometers away, the children started cheering, “We are in Manila! We are in the city!” Sometimes we think we have reached our destination when, in fact, we are only on the way there.
A tribe threatened by famine asked their strongest man to search for a land of milk and honey to where they could migrate. The messenger came back with a story and a map of a wonderful place they could move into. The tribe framed the map and worshipped the picture of the place, but they never started the long walk to their dreamland.
Of what use is a picture of a beloved if we do not appreciate his or her actual person?