Jesus beyond being God, God himself that incarnates and assumes our humanity making himself equal to us all things but sin. He, through his incarnation, the great visible sign of invisible grace of the presence of the Father in our midst. It was Christ Himself who said. “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.”

Jesus Christ through excellence is the great sign of the Father in our midst. For saying that, we take the decision of seeing God in our life, in all we encounter, the concrete sign of the presence of God in our life. Now, if we search for the things that God has to offer us, we will have serious difficulties discovering them in the things that happen to us.

Having meditated very closely on the miracles that we are called to savor—the marvelous interventions of God in our life, through the intervention of a Saint, when we celebrate the memorial of a feast of a Saint in the Church. Many persons want signs, want miracles, make promises—something that is not wrong and that we should continue to do. Still, the most important thing that we should do in celebrating a saint is that we should imitate the life of virtues and the gospel values that the saint lived. What’s more, walking on our knees into a Church in order to pay a promise, for example is easy. It is difficult to make decisions of following in the steps of this or that saint. We continue to make our promises, our requests, but changing our conceptions is what is essential.

The pharisees looked for a sign.  The great sign is Jesus, sign of the presence of God in our midst, in our family. How many times have we asked for signs and signs before God. Whomever looks to the Lord and  chooses to live His word understands that  in everything and in all circumstances, there is the presence of God acting and operating in our life.

Certain times happened in the life of a family, that moves a little city in the interior of a determined state. The family was composed of three persons, The Father, the mother and a child, a daughter of the couple that was five years old. The father used drugs, and when drugged or lacking drugs had attitudes of extreme violence. One night, after the wife arrived at the house, without making money in order that her husband may ingest drugs—cocaine, in this case—he was in a profound emotional and psychological unbalanced state, pulled out a revolver and shot his wife two times and without repenting he instantly put the gun to his head and committed suicide. The daughter was present for the whole scene. When the police arrived, they immediately took the girl from that horrible environment. Passing some months, the girl was adopted by a very Catholic family and there grew up being educated in the faith.

When she arrived at nine years of age, her adoptive parents spoke with a priest of the community in order that the girl may be introduced to preparation for First Communion. The couple spoke with the priest about the horrible history of the child with her biological parents and this—the priest—was speaking with the catechist in order that she may do a special dynamic for the first catechism class of this girl. The catechist provided a very beautiful painting of the Divine Mercy of Jesus and covered it with a towel preparing the room for the first meeting with the class. The children were curious and in the first moment they were invited to give presentations in order that they may know each other. Afterwards the catechist introduced the dynamic, very simply, take the towel from the top of the image.

Upon taking the towel, the catechist asked the children if they knew who this man was, they needed to raise their hand to respond. Who would know? But they had to know the name and the history of this devotion, the devotion of Divine Mercy. What was the surprising item, in front of the catechist. this girl whose two parents died tragically not only raised her hand, but with a great smile screamed that she could respond. The catechist asked. Do you know who is this man and his name? The response of the girl was shocking. “Teacher, I don’t know the name of this man, and from where He comes, only that I know that it was He who took my hand and hugged me at the moment that my father killed my mother and himself. I felt great peace in this moment a peace that came from this man.

Jesus is the sign, through excellence, of the loving mercy of the Father. But in order that we may be able to see the sign, that is Jesus, in facts and in events, for the bad people we may be. It is necessary that we make the decision to see all with the eyes of love, of mercy, with the eyes that may be capable of not only seeing but seeing beyond the things and the facts. It is necessary to see beyond and across things and facts.

Father Pacheco
New Song Community.

Translated from <a href=”http://blog.cancaonova.com/homilia/2010/02/15/qual-sinal-estamos-buscando”>Portuguese</a>.

Photo credit: NSP Images