10/23/2015 – Friday of 29th week in Ordinary Time – John of Capistrano – Luke 12:54-59

     Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth once stated that preachers of God's word ought to preach with the Bible in one hand & the newspaper in the other.  Barth understood the relationship between the word of God and the word of the day, that they are intrinsically bound together in such a way that one always interprets the other.  The Second Vatican Council understood this as well, as the fourth paragraph of Guadium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the modern world, states that: "At all times the Church carries the responsibility of reading the signs of the times and interpreting them in the light of the Gospel."  Today's Gospel from Luke addresses how some in Jesus' day could interpret the weather from the clouds and the appearance of the earth, but they were not able to discern the signs that Jesus put before their very eyes in his proclamation of God's kingdom.  And isn't it even more true today? We are so technologically advanced, we pride ourselves in all the scientific advances we have made, yet we so often miss the message that God is trying to convey to us.   Yes, according to the Second Vatican Council, we are call to dialogue with our modern era and to infuse our world with our faith, yet we are also called to be true to the original message of Jesus and the message preached by the early Church fathers. 

      Compare the signs of our times with the era that confronted our saint of the day, St. John of Capistrano.  John of Capistrano, who was born in Italy in the late 14^th century, actually was a lawyer and the governor of the kingdom of Perugia in Italy before he became a Franciscan priest.   He lived out his priesthood in the era of the bubonic plague in which more than 40% of the clergy where wiped out. I can't even imagine what terror people experienced on a day basis; they probably thought the end times were really here. John's vibrant preaching attracted large crowds as he traveled across Central Europe with other Franciscan priests, bringing optimism and renewal to the Church in a time of great upheaval and confusion. John even helped bring about a reunion of the Greek and Armenian Churches, although this arrangement only lasted briefly.

      May we pray to the Lord today that we are able to authentically interpret his word through the signs of our times, while still being true to the truth and wisdom that speaks to us through God's holy Word across time & history.