Explore "Give Us a Sign" by Jorge Mario Bergoglio on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Homily, Christmas Mass during the Night-December 25, 2004.
When we see Jesus amid fatigue and work, amid conflicts with the educated elites of that time (the Pharisees and Sadducees), we see how they often asked him for a sign: "We wish to see a sign from you" (Mt 12: 38). Jesus preached, and people followed him as no one else; he healed, he raised people from the dead... but they asked for a sign. The sign they saw was not enough. We can imagine that it was not enough because that educated elitism shut down their consciences; that is a valid explanation. But there was something else: Not even the person most unwilling to listen to God's voice is deprived of the instinct of knowing where he is and the direction where he should search. They sensed that raising the dead, healing the sick was not "the sign. " That's why once Jesus told them, you will be given the sign of Jonah (that is, the resurrection), they asked for the transcendental and unmistakable sign where God is fully revealed; and by that they made no mistake, even those who were further away, not even Herod. They were frightened and urged on by the heart's religious instinct, which drives us to look for and distinguish where God is.