Reading and Responding to Signs

Today the Church celebrates two Apostles, Sts. Simon and Jude, and the Marist Brothers remember it as the day in 1816 when the young Father Marcellin Champagnat encountered the dying 16-year old Jean Baptiste Montagne, an encounter which had a life-changing impact on Father Champagnat and the world. Shocked by the teenager's lack of knowledge of his faith, Champagnat reacted with the zeal of St. Simon and the Hope for which St. Jude is famous, to put into action an idea he had formulated while a seminarian: to found an order of teaching brothers. Jean Baptiste's ignorance of the faith was a sign to the young curate that the time to act on that idea was NOW. From then on, his life changed and the focus of his priesthood was centered on beginning and nourishing The Little Brothers of Mary, also known as the Marist Brothers of the Schools. It became his life's project, his mission. Little did he anticipate the struggles and stretching of his faith and talents his decision on that October day high up in the mountains of southern France would demand nor the enormous fruits it eventually would bear world-wide. We today are the beneficiaries of his courageous response to a dying boy's ignorance of his faith. If Champagnat did not see this as a sign, a call to action, you would not be reading about this event today, our Marist Schools would not exist, and I might simply be a college English professor.
With the closing of our General Chapter in Rome and the gifts of its insight and new leadership, and our own Provincial Chapter in November and new leadership in this country, this is certainly a time for ACTION. What signs are before us today? How will we as a congregation, and we as individual Marists (including lay Marists and all who read this) respond? I hope it's with the same zeal, courage and hope as St. Marcellin did.
May he and the Holy Spirit guide our reflection today.
Bro. Rene