We need to do a better job reading the signs

By Steve Hall

Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Daniel 7:15-27
Luke 21:34-36

Even today’s secular media seems enamored of those who would presume to take an occasional stroll through the events of the future. There are, of course, a few like Padre Pio whose words bear some thoughtful consideration. There are also those like Nostradamus whose ambiguous quatrains seem designed for the multiple interpretations they generate. The persistence of mankind’s fixation on the future is revealed, not only in the magicians, enchanters, and astrologers consulted by kings of old, but also in the coverage provided by today’s news media.

Daniel and the kings of his day, like Joseph and Pharaoh during their day, experienced dreams and visions that were troubling. When interpreted, these dreams and visions frequently dealt with the rise and fall of kingdoms of the time with an occasional judgment upon the people or rulers of the day. But our focus when considering these revelations can easily be misdirected. All too often attention is principally given to what is revealed about the future as if satisfying our curiosity was something deserving of divine attention. But that is to misread the signs made manifest.

Such revelations are seen by some as an opportunity for planning one’s future success in the material world. Which stock to buy. Which team to bet on. Which personal curiosity to be gratified. By treating these events in this way we miss both their point and purpose. All such revelations tell us what God is doing now. The book of Jonah should help clarify this fact.

Jonah is told by God to deliver a prophetic message: “Arise, go to Nin'eveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me." (Jonah 1:2) Eventually, Jonah obeys the Lord’s command. “Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he cried, ‘Yet forty days, and Nin'eveh shall be overthrown!’” (Jonah 3:4) As a result the king and people of the city repent. The city is not destroyed. The prophecy was clear: Nin’eveh is going to be destroyed because it is an evil place. God is setting the stage for that to happen. But that didn’t happen. Why? Because something new, I.e., repentance, was added to the mix. What we hear in the story is message of what God is doing now: He is preparing for the destruction of Nin’eveh. But the reality of the now changes. The city was no longer what it had been (sinful), but was now something new (repentant).

What we learn from this is that a prophesied future will only come to pass if the now does not become different. The dreams and visions in the book of Daniel are accurate to the degree that the now that fomented them still exists.

We find the flip side of this coin in the gospel readings. There we are cautioned not to become indifferent to the signs. "Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life . . . “ Why? Lest “that day catch you by surprise like a trap.”

The signs are what they are: the word of God made known to us in the now and about the now. We need to do a better job reading them.