Nineveh Repents And God Relents
Another great day on our journey through this Lenten season, seeking to make a difference, a positive change in our lives and in our world, we see that today’s reading both speak about the prophet Jonah; the first from the Book of Jonah and the second from the Gospel of St. Luke. Both accounts point to an extremely critical aspect of our Christian journey – the urgent need for repentance. Repentance is not an option. It is not one of those things that we can do – if we choose to. Repentance is mandatory in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Book of Johan is one of the minor prophets in the Bible – but one with a major lesson – an urgent call for repentance. Johan was commissioned by God to go to the great city of Nineveh, and preach against their great sinfulness, and to warn them that if they did not repent of their sins, their great city will be destroyed! But Jonah was fearful of his assignment and so he fled from God – or at least, he tried to. He did not know it then, but found out later that you cannot hide from God! Psalm 139, verses 7 – 12 reminds us of this. We simply cannot out-run God. Not even the great sprinters can out-run him.
The Prophet Jonah eventually gave in and went to the great city of Nineveh to deliver God’s message of repentance to them, and something incredible happened – they all listened and repented! Everyone in the city repented, proclaiming a fast and putting on sackcloth; young and old, great and small. Even the king rose from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. The king took this one step further. He issued a decree throughout the whole of Nineveh that “neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything. They shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered in sackcloth and shall call loudly to God. Every man shall turn from his evil ways and from the violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath so that we shall not perish.“
It is very interesting to note in this story that a fast was ordered not only for the people of Nineveh but also for the animals. This is because the sins of man affects all of creation. It should also be noted, the flow of the conversion process:
Sometimes someone has to be sent to us to point our the error of our ways. Sometimes we are so blinded by our sins that we need someone else to point them out to us.
Upon recognizing their sins for what they were, they acted. They repented of their sins
The third and final stage was that they were not presumptions in assuming automatic mercy. They waited on God. Note the words of the decree given by the king that says, “…..Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath so that we shall not perish.“
The gospel reading also speaks of Jonah but in a comparative way. Today’s gospel comes after Jesus had done a teaching on what prayer was and how we should pray. In verse 14 and following, he cast out a demon from someone who was mute and they began to speak much to the amazement of the crowd. Yet, some of them said it was by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons that he was able to drive out demons. Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. So it is against this background that we have today’s gospel, and we understand why Jesus responded the way he did. What Jesus was saying was that in the days of Jonah, he a mere prophet warned the people of Nineveh of the wrath that would come their way if they did not repent, and they repented. But here you have the Son of God preaching, teaching, healing, casting out demons, and they refused to repent. That was an indictment against them and it will be against us as well if we do not repent, except maybe worse for we have been exposed to more that in the days when Jesus walked the earth. We have experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit plus more than 2000 years of Christianity. The one greater that Johan is Jesus Christ. The one greater that Solomon with all his wisdom, and Sheeba is Jesus Christ; the Son of Man, the Victim and the Priest, the Spotless Lamb Of God, who gave all he had for us that we might come; come and join him in the kingdom of heaven, but we must first repent and believe the Good News.
Sisters, brothers, by the grace of God, may our hearts be open to see the truth of ourselves; to see our selfishness and our sins, and may we repent and return to our first intended love, God our Loving Father. The Holy Roman Catholic Church is tremendously blest with the sacrament of reconciliation, also known as confession. Not just during the Lenten season but throughout your life, allow the tender grace and mercy of our God to flow. Go to confession as often as you can. Do not allow pride to deprive you of your salvation.
