Monday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 18, 2022

Matthew 12, 38-42

Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He 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. Just 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. At 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. At 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.”

Due to the uncertainty of our lives, we often look for signs to guide us or to confirm some choice we already made.  The Lord does not condemn this practice but expects us to make use of it.  Indeed, he chastises the Pharisees for their failure to do so: “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.”  The Lord, in this instance, is rebuking the Pharisees for their failure to recognize the signs for the coming of the Messiah.  In the present reading, the Pharisees seem to be asking for a sign that will confirm that he is the Messiah.  But the signs are everywhere evident.  In a way, the Gospel of St. Matthew is a collection of these signs.  The problem for the Pharisees, and sometimes us, is that it is easy to get so tied up in signs that the reality is missed.  The Pharisees is the Gospel reading are asking the one to whom the signs all point to give them more signs.  

Sometimes we cannot take Yes for an answer.  This can be out of fear.  We can become comfortable with signs because they point to a reality far off.  We can also ignore certain signs or talk ourselves out of taking some signs seriously and accept only the ones that seem to tell us what we want to think.  A person may notice a symptom of a potentially deadly disease, but then look for some sign that allows the person to discount the symptom, at least for the present.  We also fear being proven wrong if we think a sign is pointing to a definite thing and we find out that it not not pan out.  

A certain pattern of signs helps us more than a single one.  Lists of signs can be drawn up that enable to a person to tell if he or she is called to the Priesthood or to the religious life (in the fool-proof list I share with school kids, the first sign is immediate denial as soon as the subject comes up).  

“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign.”  The Lord is speaking of the generation or age that lasts from the time of his Incarnation until his Second Coming.  The time of signs as to the coming of the Messiah ends at his coming.  The generation or age is “evil” and “unfaithful” because it seeks a different savior, not the Son of God.  It will not accept Jesus and his commandments.

“The sign of Jonah.”  We might think of Jonah as the prophet who tried to run from God, but the Lord is speaking of how he sacrificed himself for the crew of the ship during the storm.  This is the final sign of the Messiah.  “Just 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.  The Lord speaks here of his Resurrection from the dead.  We might recall the the giant fish “vomited” Jonah onto the shore.  Thus also, Death vomited out from itself the Lord of Life.

“At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it.”  The story of Jonah acted as a parable for Israel in that he was sent not to the people of the northern kingdom, where he hailed from, but to Israel’s greatest enemy of the time.  The Gentiles there repented after a few days of preaching by a foreign prophet, in contrast to the centuries during which the Lord sent multiple prophets to the northern kingdom where they lived, to no avail.  Nineveh was spared destruction on this occasion, but the northern kingdom was completely wiped out later by the armies of Assyria.  The Lord reminded the Pharisees of that if they do not heed the signs that point to him as the Messiah, this fate will likewise befall them.

“There is something greater than Solomon here.”  The one who filled Solomon with wisdom speaks here to the Pharisees.  He speaks plainly to them.  There are no parables, riddles, metaphors.  In the end, most of them refused to accept the Lord as their Lord.  We pray that we will look to no one but the Lord Jesus to be our Savior.