It truly is a pleasure to be back at St. Patrick's to share a word of Scripture with you, to join you for this wonderful three days of celebration. I have to say, I'm inspired by how many of you have come out on a Monday night. It's truly a sight to behold.

There's a beautiful invitation in the first reading today. The Lord says to King Ahaz, “Ask a sign of the Lord. Ask for anything that you want, as high as heaven or as low as hell. Ask the Lord. He'll give it to you.”

And why would the Lord give Ahaz such a gift? Well, King Ahaz was deep in trouble. He was surrounded on the left and on the right by enemies, by other kingdoms that he knew he didn't have the strength or the resources to fight, to stand against.

But the prophet Isaiah said, “You're giving up on the Lord too quickly. The Lord wants to help you. Ask for a sign. Be reassured of your faith.” And Ahaz says, “I will not put my Lord God to the test.”

King Ahaz was a bit of a coward. He was a bit of a conniver, a bit of a scoundrel. And before Isaiah even came to him to ask him to ask the Lord for a sign, King Ahaz had already sold out.

We know that when we break the covenant with the Lord, things can't go well. But in this case, amazingly, God said, and God already knew what was in Ahaz's heart, “God said, I'm going to give you a sign anyways.”

We're surrounded by signs. Sometimes people say God is invisible. Where is this God that you have your faith in? Why doesn't God show himself? Well, I say God does show himself. God always shows himself. God is always giving us signs that we can see.

I want to share a little story with you of an Easter I spent in a small Cree village in northern Alberta. The first thing I learned about this village was that they saw signs everywhere. They saw signs in nature, in the weather, in the migration of animals, in the snow. They saw signs that made them think about what was coming next. And so the people of that community gathered around the fire. As many people as there were, there was twice as many dogs. 

And as I prayed over the fire and came to the end of the Easter blessing, I said a great big AMEN! And as soon as I said Amen, every dog howled together in unison. “Awhoooo!” Just went on and on. So later that night, after the celebration was over, the elders came back to the priest's house for a cup of tea. I thought I'd question them. So, did you notice the dogs howl? Do you think it's a good sign?

They looked at each other, and then they started to talk to each other in Cree. And then finally, the oldest one in the group turned and said to me, “We think so.”

Sometimes God's signs are a little confusing, a little complicated, a little mysterious.

In the Book of Revelation tonight, we heard that message from John, John, the evangelist. He wrote this message of a vision that he saw, of a woman and a child.

Except this was no ordinary woman. This was a woman as big as the universe, with the sun as her halo and the moon under her feet. And she was fighting beasts in order to protect her child.

And the woman we celebrate tonight, Mary, our mother, she was the one who said yes. She saw the signs. She heard the signs from God, God who asked her to participate in the mysteries of salvation.

And she understood what God was showing her. Sometimes it was clear. When an angel stands before you and asks if you want to be the mother of God's son, it's pretty clear. When you visit your cousin Elizabeth, who is well into her elderly years and thought to be barren and who is out to here, pregnant with John the Baptist, it's a pretty clear sign.

But Mary also had to discern a lot of difficult signs, a lot of subtle signs as she watched Jesus grow, as she tried to understand God's plan for her son. We hear in the Scriptures that Mary had faith and she pondered these things in her heart.

So that, when the day came and she experienced that most horrific moment of seeing her son hanging on the cross, she could stand, not in grief, not in misery, but in faith, knowing that this cross was a sign not of an end, but of a beginning of something new. And her son looked down upon her and the disciple whom he loved, and he put them together and said, “Be with one another. This is your mother. This is your son.” And it was there that the Church was born.

The question then, if the signs of God are all around us, if God reveals himself to us in mysterious ways and in clear ways, if God shows himself to us in our life and the people we know, in the bodies we walk this earth in, if we're willing to be like Mary, a person of faith and not like Ahaz, a person who is afraid.

And that's why I'm so pleased to see you all here tonight. You could have been anywhere. You could have been home watching TV. Could have been out for a walk. But you chose to come here tonight so that you could pray and be together in faith. And in our world today, that's a very important sign.

So tonight, as we celebrate, I invite you to recognize yourselves as a sign of God's presence. You are a sign of God's love. A sign of God's presence. Do not be afraid. Say “yes” when the Lord comes asking for you to help.