Sunday, January 21, 2001
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Sunday, January 21, 2001 |
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Signs of the times By FATHER KEVIN PEEK At the wedding feast of Cana, at the request of His mother, Jesus chose to work the first of His many miracles, or signs. This we know and have heard many times before. But what is a sign? What is its purpose? And how shall we know it? There are many kinds of signs in our world and each one is created and established by an authority to impart information about what lies just beyond it. It does not stand as an end unto itself, but serves rather to point us to a deeper reality. Street signs such as stop signs, yield signs, and exit signs harken to the deeper purpose of the safety and well-being of all on the road. Signs of affection, such as hugs, kisses and back rubs show forth the love and affection of one for another. But is the sign the same thing as that to which it points? No. If a hug could encapsulate the depth of another's feeling for you, be careful and make sure your wallet is still there when they let go! No sign can ever effectively transmit the fullness of the reality it points to, unless it is one with that reality. The closer a sign gets to the reality, the more completely it accomplishes its purpose, the more perfected it becomes. Take a billboard on the highway that advertises for McDonald's. Is it McDonald's? No. Or the great blue signs farther down the road that remind you McDonald's is off this exit? Don't expect to get a burger and fries there. How about the 30-foot-high sign in the parking lot out front? It too is still simply a sign pointing to the reality beyond it, as well as the sign on the door, and the logo on the burger wrapper. But inside the wrapper we find the essence of what the signs were all about; and so the sign closest to perfection is perhaps that "M" on the wrapper. For a sign to attain perfection, it not only needs to be closest to that which it represents, but must also be a good sign. Now there are good signs and bad signs. A good sign is one that is readable, understandable and accurate, while a bad sign is often one that is illegible, confusing, broken, overgrown and inaccurate. And so Jesus establishes His
first sign at Cana by turning water into wine 150 gallons worth. The Messiah had come to just such a people perishing in the darkness of sin and despair, suffering from spiritual poverty and distress, longing for the love and mercy of God. This wine, then, becomes more than a good deed for a newly wedded couple; it is a sign of that abundant, rich and living love of God. When explaining the purpose of his coming he would later say, "I came that they might have life, and have it to the fullest," and what sign better signifies that than the transformation of ordinary water into rich and robust wine? Eventually Christ would perform many signs, all of which served to further expose and display the intense love of God for man and His desire to see man whole. They were clear, legible and accurate, for all mankind to see. These signs served to heal, strengthen, unite, renew and celebrate the life of all who responded to them and moved beyond appearance to the reality which lay beyond. Some of these signs were so powerful and transforming that Christ empowered and ordered his apostles to repeat them so all might know this life. Thus the sacraments continue today as perpetual and living signs, points of contact between this world and the physical person of Jesus Christ. The more the Christian understands, embraces and unites with them, the closer they approach to the reality to which these signs point, Jesus Christ, and the more perfectly they reflect Him to the world. The Christian himself becomes a sign pointing to a deeper reality. But Satan, the prince of this world, has his own signs, which point to the selfishness, division, rejection and destruction of which he alone is the father. He has his own "church" with his own "sacraments," which also serve to draw us to a deeper reality, but one that seeks rather to perpetuate and celebrate death rather than life. In embracing these, the individual
is deformed rather than transformed, being dragged away from the fundamental
reality in which we were created. These are Apart from Christ there is no life, but in Christ is found the fullness of life itself. To which do the signs of our lives point, and how? In a time of such great confusion and darkness in matters of love and life, what is needed is a clear, legible and accurate sign of the abundant, rich and living love of God; one that approaches the perfection of the reality to which it points. What is needed is a renewed commitment among Christians to embrace the value and dignity of each and every human life, and not just step over or around them in pursuit of our goals. What is needed is a profound hunger to be one with Jesus Christ. [Father Kevin Peek is the parochial vicar at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Peachtree City.]
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