What’s Your Sign?

Contributed by Father Jack Melito, CM

Asking someone about their astrological sign has long been a facile, informal icebreaker used by people to connect with each other or to gauge their mutual barometers. It’s usually a throwaway line, whose answer for most people yields a rather negligible identification; for others the reply might reflect some genuine belief. Catholicism has a long and rich tradition of symbols that connect people to their life of faith. Whatever the varieties of such signs, the faithful are reminded to be always aware of the “signs of the times,” whether religious or secular, that reveal God’s action in the world.

The Season of Advent has its own signs, some for the moment and others for the ultimate intent of the season. For instance, the liturgy borrows the words of Jesus to heed the warnings regarding end-times (signs “in the sun, the moon, and the starsC9 Beware that your hearts do not become drowsyC9”) and it employs them to remind the faithful of the urgency of using well the season of grace that Advent is – to prepare for celebrating the mystery Christ’s birth. On the other hand, looking ahead to the seasonreal purpose, the Star of Bethlehem is an explicit sign revealed to the Magi: “We saw his star at its rising, and have come to do him homage.” After their meeting with Herod, the star “went ahead of them until it came to a standstill over the place where the child was.” (Matthew 2: 2, 9)

A different measure of light floods the shepherds: it was “the glory of the Lord, [its source] the angel of the Lord,” who directed their way. Reassuring the shepherds that they have “nothing to fear,” the angel declared, “Let this be a sign to you: in a manger you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes.” The news was confirmed when they found the infant in the manger, and “once they saw, they understood what had been told them concerning this child.” (Luke 2:10, 12, 17)

It is interesting that stars and bright lights have found their way into seasonal decorations, taking on special meanings for the Christian household. In any event, the Gospel signs of the star and the angel’s light are just that: pointers that lead to the infant in the manger. That child is Emmanuel – God with us – who is both the sign and the one signified heralding salvation. He is the fulfillment of all the prophetic signs that, from the beginning, fed the hope embedded in the promises about the Messiah. “Emmanuel,” then, is more than a sign. It is the password by which we identify for each other our kinship in Christ. The opening prayer at the outset of the Advent journey entreats the Father to aid his people, “searching for the light of [his] Word,” to experience “the dawn of [Emmanuel’s] coming” and welcome “the light of his truth.”

“We saw his star at its rising, and have come to do him homage.”

– Matthew 2:2