Daily Gospel Reflection for July 23, 2108: St. Bridget

Today's Gospel: Mt 12:38-42 In this Gospel reading the scribes and Pharisees believed only in the signs that God had presented in their history. To quote Aquilina, “…[we] were a people unique in having no patience with myth.” God made himself known in specific ways at specific times. Faith was more difficult; the scribes and Pharisees wanted proof. A while back I learned from a spiritual director there is a difference between having faith in something and believing. To believe is tangible. I believe summer has come because specific flowers are blooming, the temperatures are within a certain range, and the trees are setting fruit. The same is true of any season; they each have specific signs of change. To have faith is to trust in something beyond our physical experiences. It is to have a confidence—an emotional state—that something is true. We do not experience the waves that speed to the GPS and back to our devices, yet we have confidence in the resulting image that guides our travels. It is in the faith that Jesus is the sign of God’s love and mercy that we are saved. We condemn our self by refusing that truth, when we lack the confidence to trust in the Christ.