MEDITATION OF THE DAY (MAGNIFICAT Missalette)
Father von Balthasar
Seeking a Sign
An "experience" is necessary if one is to open up to faith ... The disciples too desired a sign so that they could orient themselves toward Christ's return ... The sign of Jesus' resurrection is his death. Precisely in this apparent contradiction the faith Jesus demands gives proof of its victory over the world. What sign did Jonah make when he proclaimed to
"No other sign," Jesus says. It is as if he thereby sweeps away all his healings and exorcisms, all his multiplication of loaves and calming of storms, as if all these "works" were invalid as signs, as if in the ultimate decision he was confining himself to himself, who surpasses Jonah in signification. He transcends Jonah's sign through the insignificance ("even to death on the cross") of his three days spent hidden in the bosom of the earth. Those demanding a sign receive nothing but the character of the (incarnate Divine) Word in its mundane, humiliated form. This, and only this, is believable - every ostentatious sign would be incredible 'and would point only to a power opposed to God (Rv 13: 3-4, 13-15).
That Jonah was spit out onto the dry ground on the third day, that Christ arose on the third day, is not given as a sign to "this evil generation." Unlike the healing of the mortally wounded beast in Revelation, the .resurrection is no spectacle upon which belief focuses. Nowhere is it called a "sign," and Thomas was explicitly instructed: "Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe" Un 20: 29). The witness must be believed; just as Jonah testified to his mission from God, so Jesus is the testimony of the Father, and the disciples are Christ's witnesses (Acts 13: 31; 10: 41). They will have both cross and resurrection to bear witness to, but the cross is the visible sign, and the resurrection is the invisible sign. The cross shows itself as a defeat; the resurrection victory is invisible.
Therefore, Christ's Church shows herself to the world as a sign of humiliation, persecution, and death.
FATHER HANS URS VON BALTHASAR (+ 1988) was an eminent Swiss Catholic theologian who wrote prodigiously.
from You Have Words of Eternal Life, Scripture Meditations,
Dermis Martin. Tr. © 1999. Ignatius Press,
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