While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. ( Lk 11:29)
God is good, all the time.
A week has gone by since the Lent started on Ash Wednesday, and I was inspired to see so many of you at Mass to receive the ashes and enter the season of Lent. As we hope to see the season come to a full circle at Easter, continue to engage in all the many spiritual activities to stay afloat in holiness with daily meditation and the Eucharist.
When Jesus was asked for a sign from heaven, he said, "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation."
Understand this Jonah allusion this way. Ninevites would have no idea of Jonah's three-day experience in the belly of the fish. But they saw his presence with them as the concrete sign of God's love and involvement in their lives, which they embraced quickly and whole-heartedly.
Jesus shows us how God is involved with our generation and will continue to do everything to help us and save us more than he even did with Nineveh. And the sign of his commitment is the Eucharist. Jesus' three-day experience of death of which the Eucharist will become the perpetual memorial is the sign to our generation.
The Eucharist, which is at the center of Catholic worship is both the bread of life that offers life to those who eat it ( Cf. Jn 6: ) and the most significant sign of God's love and involvement in our lives; our generation has this Eucharistic sign.
The point here is that when we experience dark situations; when things become unreasonably dark; when events delay, and we run out of options; when we become impatient and skeptical, we must turn to the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, we carry the master and the savior with us to help us through life and find rest for their weary souls.