What We Signed Up For
Decorative signage with single words like “Kitchen” displayed in the same room that obviously functions as the one it identifies seems redundant to me. I also find those sugar-coated inspirational signs to be equally self-evident:
“Laugh Out Loud!”
(Thank you for that message. I’ll try not to bust a gut laughing internally.)
“Breathe.”
(Much better than the alternative! I’ll jot that down somewhere and remember to inhale and exhale.)
On the other hand, traffic signs like “Stop” and “Yield” offer clear messages for safety. Other signs provide clarity in circumstances that are less self-evident: “No Parking—Tow-Away Zone,” “Speed Camera in Use.”
We live by signs. A high thermometer reading is usually a sign that our body is not well. The leaf colors on deciduous trees are a sign of seasonal change. Earthquake tremors signify seismic activity.
We not only live by signs, but we also embody them. For example, Americans are signified by the self-evident moral truths found in our Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Likewise, as Christians we embody similar self-evident moral truths. Namely, we believe that individuals and groups of peoples are equally worthy of dignity and respect. Moreover, we maintain that God provided the goods of the earth to benefit all people equally.
These moral truths aren’t part of a “communist agenda” by a progressive element of the Church. Rather, they comprise the key tenets of our traditional Christian social doctrine. This set of beliefs didn’t originate with the latest pope. Instead, it began at the beginning: with the founder of Christianity, embodied by his self-evident signs.
In Luke’s Gospel, when John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus replied, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them” (see Luke 7:18–23).
Recall that in the Jewish tradition, healings were expected to accompany the Messiah’s coming. They were a sign that God was faithful to his promise to restore all of creation. Jesus, therefore, was stating that his actions were self-evident: these signs spoke for themselves as incontrovertible proof that he was the Son of God. “A tree is known by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33).
Indeed, Jesus was so laser-focused on this mission to bring about the Good News of God’s reign that he performed compassionate signs of healing or “miracles” for those who were suffering and oppressed. Early in John’s Gospel, a Pharisee named Nicodemus approached Jesus privately and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him” (John 3:2). In fact, the first twelve chapters of the Gospel of John are known as the Book of Signs. They include Jesus changing water into wine as his first sign, his cure of the royal official’s son as the second sign, and other signs leading up to the raising of Lazarus.
Jesus had another clear motive for performing his many signs: to indicate precisely the same kind of activity that we must do to bring about God’s reign! Before his ascension, Jesus commissioned his disciples with two tasks: to heal the sick and to proclaim God’s reign is at hand: “They went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs” (Mark 16:20).
Thus, as followers of Jesus we have a duty to be heralds of good news and healers of body and soul! If the signs of Jesus were self-evident that he was of God, then we also are called to be agents of God’s compassion in bringing about his reign—and in making ourselves more Godlike in the process.
“The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1131). Fortified and empowered by these signs, we commit our lives for the reign of God as Jesus did—to enter into the life of God and build a more just world. Why? Because all people, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, are worthy of dignity, equality, and respect.
Every time we sign ourselves “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” it signifies that we embody fundamental beliefs and self-evident moral truths as Catholics.
What’s your sign?
