Tempting God

When Ahaz, king of Judah was told to ask God for a sign, like most of us, he refused, saying that he would not tempt God. (cf. Is 7:10-14).  We love, signs, we look for them, yet we are hesitant to ask for them.  God, however, is eager to give signs:  "the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel."  Quite a sign, fulfilled in the conception and birth of Jesus.  We have such signs all around us, yet we are blind to them. Our skeptical world even rejects signs, explaining them away either by science, or by psychology:  "mass hysteria," frenzy or panic.  Those who were present at Fatima on October 13, 1917 could not deny what they had seen with their own eyes, but outsiders were ready to dismiss it as mob frenzy.  Such is people's right.  If St. Marcellin, however, had not believed in signs, where would we be?  The Memorare in the Snow...the arrival of 8 candidates for the novitiate when new members had not shown up for awhile.  And today, the Marist World is fraught with signs:  Ambitious plans for CHANGE--the theme of the International Youth Meeting in Rio de Janiero this July, the six new novices in Madagascar, the provincial chapter in the province of Brazil Centro-Norte which included 5 lay Marists for the first time; and the courage of the brothers in Aleppo are a few examples.  God gives us signs all the time.  He wants us to ask for them.  He's not insulted if we do, but is if we don't!
Bro. Rene