Jesus used images from everyday life: workers in the fields; the birds in the air; the vineyard; shepherds tending their flocks, that people knew well and understood to teach many truths. In today’s Gospel Jesus uses images about interpreting the signs of the times. He was not warning about a cataclysmic end of the earth. He was teaching his disciples to be diligent in observing the world in which they live; to recognize the ways in which they were not treating each other the way God intended, and the need to change.
We do not like to change; to be told to change; or the person who calls us to change. There can be dark times and tribulations then we realize we must change, and when we challenge others to change. But, if we want to be all that God created us to be, and the world to be all God intended it to be, we must constantly look for the signs that call us to change, like when the branches of the fig tree becomes tender and sprout leaves, you will know summer is near.
