People look for "signs". We'd like to have an absolute assurance for our faith. But, as Jesus remarked, it's an evil or unfaithful generation that asks for a sign. Elsewhere He said that no sign would be good enough for those who don't trust in God - even if someone should rise from the dead, they still would not believe!

Faith, like love, is not something that can be 'forced'. It's a gift and it needs a trust in the one who gives the gift, whether that gift is divine grace or human love. Real miracles happen around us, but they don't often "convert" people whose hearts are not already open to God. There are "signs" all around us, but can we 'read' them and learn what they mean? The Israelites saw the miracles the Lord did for them, but they forgot about them when difficulties arose, and they complained against God and Moses for bringing them out of the slavery of Egypt (Ex. 15). Jesus referred to the stories of Jonah and of the Queen of the South - those who asked Him for signs surely knew these stories but did not 'read' them as signs. They did not see the connection between Jonah's history and Jesus' ministry, between the wisdom of Solomon that attracted even foreigners and the teaching of Jesus that they were listening to.

Let us ask, rather, for wisdom to read the signs we've already been given.