Our Lord said, “When it is evening, you say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning: today there will be a storm, for the sky is red and lowering. You know then how to discern the face of the sky: and can you not know the signs of the times?” (Matthew 16:2-3, DRV).
Some of the Lord’s sayings are a puzzle, but we heed them nonetheless.
Speaking of signs, there are moments during the liturgical year that prompt me to reflect about “signs of the times”. For example, what is the Star of Bethlehem? A sign of the times? None more. A Protestant lawyer, Rick Larson, endeavoured to clarify its identity (bethlehemstar.com). He coordinated historical references, Scripture and sophisticated astronomy tools (starrynighteducation.com) to review the heavens during the lead-up to the strongest candidate years for the Lord’s birth. He watched the retrograde motions of planets around key stars in certain constellations, and their rare conjunction to form a spectacular heavenly sight, viewed at Jerusalem in the direction of Bethlehem.
Larson also studied possible dates of Our Lord’s crucifixion on that first Good Friday. On one candidate date, the moon rose in the phase of bloody red eclipse as the Lord would have died. With the aforementioned online astronomy tools, you can view the same eclipse, but from the moon, an eclipse of the Sun by the Earth, in the constellation of the Ram (the “lamb”).
Did Larson solve the puzzles conclusively? Perhaps not. But he paid attention to the signs.
Does God talk to us of signs of the times also through his beautiful celestial clock?
May 13 is the 100th anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady to three children in Fatima in 1917. This year also marks the anniversaries of the sparking of the 1517 Protestant revolt, of the 1717 founding of the anti-Catholic Masonic Grand Lodge in London, and of the Communist Revolution in Russia in 1917, the year of the apparitions.
Our Lady’s final appearance at Fatima and the “miracle of the Sun” on October 13, 1917, was – to the day – 33 years (the years of Our Lord) after Leo XIII received the portentous auditory revelation of the exchange in which God granted the Devil a century to scourge the Church.
What do these signposts mean? I don’t know, but I take sober note of them.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.