Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel, Jesus exhorts us to pay close attention to the signs of the times. In those days, there were no extended weather forecasts. As such, people paid close attention to the clues and signs that could be observed from natural phenomena. Based on these data and their prior experiences, they could make reasonably accurate predictions about what kind of weather was coming.
In the same way, Jesus emphasizes that we can and should read the metaphorical winds of the times in the same way. When we see certain winds of popular thought blowing in sociocultural contexts, for instance, it is not unreasonable to think that we can make at least some predictions with a certain degree of accuracy.
As a relevant example, the fundamental concepts of human dignity and the value of human life are inseparably connected to the fact that we have been created by an infinitely loving God. If it becomes socially unacceptable to insist on the reality of God in a public context, what can we reasonably expect will happen to societal perceptions of the value of human life? These occurrences are not random, unrelated phenomena. They are deeply, fundamentally intertwined. We have to be willing to look at the signs of the times with open eyes and ask the Lord for the wisdom, prudence, and strength to pursue His will in the midst of these tumultuous times.