Are You Looking for a Sign?

Are you looking for signs? We are created beings that always see signs everywhere. Traffic signs, restaurant signs, shopping store signs and many other signs that we have to see and deal with every day. In relation to faith, are signs necessary to have faith?

As a teenager discerning for the priesthood, I asked God to give me a sign if He was really calling me to be a priest, but unfortunately I didn’t see or receive the sign that I was asking for. Nonetheless, I joined the vocation seminar and regular meetings for discernment and after 20 years I now find myself working in a parish in the United States as a priest!

A sign is not needed for one who has faith because he believes anyway. On the other hand, one who does not have faith, even if he already sees signs, will still say that it is not a sign. A sign is of no value to the one who believes because he will do so even without a sign. It is also of no value to one who does not believe, because he will not believe even when presented with a sign.

Let us now examine our Christian life and our Christian faith. Are we the kind of people who always look for signs? Do we pray and ask the Lord for signs? Do we pray and ask the Lord, “If this is Your will, this is the sign I ask of You.”

A sign is not important for us, what we need is faith. The Blessed Virgin Mary did not become beautiful before God because she was given a sign. She was and is still beautiful because she believed even before the sign was given to her. St Teresa of Avila received apparitions and special attentions from God, still she told Him, “Lord, please take away these signs. I want to believe in you even if there are no signs.”

 If you believe because you see, there is no real room for genuine faith; there is not so much merit in that because everybody else will believe as you do. If you believe even if there are no signs, then this is something beautiful. This is genuine faith. Let us not yield to the temptation of asking the Lord for signs. Rather, our prayers should be:

“Lord, give us faith, even if there are no signs, we will believe. Faith is your gift to us. And our faith, is also our gift to You.”