An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign

21 JULY (Mt 12,38-42)

The generation is evil because its heart is turned to evil rather than to good. The truth of men is good not evil, love not hate, forgiveness not revenge, justice not injustice, truth not falsehood, peace not war, union not division. Jesus does not speak of one man, he speaks of a generation, of an era, of a time. There is no one that can be saved. It is as if a shadow of spiritual death had struck the men who were his contemporaries.

We can understand the words of Jesus, referred to a universality, rather than a peculiarity, if we remember what the Psalm says: “There is no one just, not one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have gone astray; all alike are worthless; there is not one who does good, (there is not) even one. Their throats are open graves; they deceive with their tongues; the venom of asps is on their lips; their mouths are full of bitter cursing. Their feet are quick to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they know not. There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rm 3,10-18). When this happens, and it often happens, it is as if darkness wrapped the entire world. It is a condition of true spiritual disaster. There is no room for the light. The truth disappears, the good eclipses, God is turned off in the hearts, there place left only for evil, wickedness and the will destroyer of the good.

Not only is the generation evil, it is also adulterous. Adultery is the denial of conjugal faith, to build one flesh with that which is not our flesh, our blood, our body and our breath of life. A man was married with an eternal marriage with the truth, love, justice, charity and holiness. He was also married in an indissoluble way with his Lord and God. This generation lives in a state of constant betrayal of his God and of itself. It abandoned its husband to indulge to idols. It left its eternal truth to let its mind be pollute by falsehood. It denied the light and handed itself over to darkness. It is not a matter of a casual, transient and isolated adultery. Instead, we are in front of a stable and long-lasting adultery. It is a real lifestyle choice. From the adoration of the Creator, this generation has plunged into the hell of self worship.

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.

It is as if Jesus stopped before a hard rock, a granite rock. There are no dreams that one can give you. The mind is all twisted. He would have always found a reason, grounds not to believe. This generation is refractory to any truth. It does not accept any true light. It is fossilized in darkness. It is ingrained in sin. Jesus sees this irrecoverable spiritual situation to revelation and refuses to offer any sign. However, he gives them as example Jonah and the Queen of the South. Jonah converted Nineveh with only seven words: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The Queen of the South rushed to Jerusalem because she had heard of the wisdom of Solomon. Jesus is divine and eternal wisdom, he is the source of all wisdom and of all truth, of all science and knowledge and is rejected. He carried out wondrous works, but no one was converted. The moral responsibility of the generation of Jesus is great. In the day of judgment the must give account to God.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints free us from any adultery.