Wednesday of Week 1 of Lent – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 11:29-32

Today’s readings are about doing penance for our sins and they are linked by the name of Jonah.

In Mark’s Gospel, the crowds are often shown as recognising God’s presence in Jesus better than the scribes and Pharisees do. In Luke, however, they are sometimes shown as people curious to see signs and wonders, but without any real commitment to following Jesus.

So today we are told that “the crowds were increasing” and Jesus spoke to them. But what he said was not very flattering:

This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

Jesus, like Jonah, is a call to repentance and radical conversion. And Jesus implies that many of his listeners are not ready or willing to hear that call. They don’t need any more signs—Jesus has been giving them an abundance of signs through his teaching and healing work.

On the judgment day, they, the chosen people of God, will be surprised to see:

The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed, something greater than Solomon is here!

As well:

The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and indeed, something greater than Jonah is here!

Jesus is far superior to either Solomon or Jonah!

We, too, who claim to be God’s people, may be surprised to see who will be called to God’s side on judgment day because they heard and followed God’s word according to their capacity. The question is, where will we be on that day? Thomas à Kempis, writer of the famous medieval treatise The Imitation of Christ, asked that very same question. He was worried about whether he would persevere in serving Christ to the very end of his life. He said he was told in answer to his prayer:

Do now what you would like to have done then, and you will have nothing to worry about.

Where will I be on the Day of Judgement? The answer to that question can be decided by me this very day and every single day from now on.

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Wednesday of Week 1 of Lent – First Reading

Commentary on Jonah 3:1-10

Jonah, probably not a historical figure, is nevertheless one of the most attractive characters in the Bible. Although he is listed among the Minor Prophets, his book is more a cautionary tale than prophecy in the strict sense. There is an underlying humour through the whole book of Jonah which one does not often find in the Old Testament. The book also indicates a softening of attitudes by the Jews towards Gentiles. They were not totally beyond God’s compassion and mercy.

Jonah is asked by God to go east to preach to the pagan people of Niniveh, the capital city of Assyriah, described as being so big that it took three days to walk across it. Archaeological excavations indicate that the later imperial city of Nineveh was about 13 km in circumference, or a larger area comprising a four-city complex (‘Greater Niniveh’) which would have been about 100 km in circumference. However, we are not dealing with a historical document and the idea is simply to say that it was a huge city with a lot of people—all unbelievers in the true God.

However, we see in chapter 1, instead of doing what God tells him, Jonah takes a ship and goes west—in the opposite direction. He cannot believe that God could show mercy to such wicked pagans. After a huge storm threatens to sink the ship and all on board, the crew become aware that Jonah, in disobeying a mission from his God, is the cause of all their trouble. So he is unceremoniously dumped overboard where he is promptly swallowed by a huge fish (traditionally, a whale). Even the whale does not particularly enjoy the presence of Jonah and, after three days, coughs him up on the shore (see chap 2).

In our reading today, Jonah finally accepts the message that God means business and he reluctantly proceeds to go and preach to the people of Niniveh, a city synonymous with paganism and idolatry. He threatens the city with destruction if the people do not change their ways:

Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!

The 40 days is reminiscent of the Flood, God’s punishment on a wicked world, which lasted 40 days, or of the 40 years that the Israelites spent wandering in the desert. The Hebrew expression for ‘overthrown’ is also an echo of the ‘overthrowing’ of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by a special act of God.

To Jonah’s great surprise there is an immediate response to his call for penance:

And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus mentions this unexpected conversion and compares it with those Jews who refuse to believe in him.

From the greatest to the least, the citizens of Niniveh begin to fast and wear penitential sackcloth. Even the king:

…rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

Even animals were not to be given food. Inclusion of the domestic animals was unusual, but expressed the urgency with which the Ninevites sought God’s mercy. Even then, forgiveness seemed too much to hope for:

Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.

The result was that God did indeed look kindly on their efforts to change their ways and relented. The threatened punishment for their wickedness was not inflicted. Clearly, repentant Gentiles were also the object of God’s love and forgiveness.

The thrust of this story seems to be that, contrary to traditional Jewish belief (of which Jonah himself was an example), “wicked” Gentiles could respond to God’s call and change their ways. This is an anticipation of what would happen in the early Church, where the first Jewish Christians gradually came to realise that the gospel call was extended to people everywhere.

For us, at this time of Lent, it is a reminder of our need to repent, both in the sense of being truly sorry for all the wrong we have done and the good we have failed to do, and to reflect on how our lives can be brought more in line with the call of the gospel. It is also a time to reflect on our attitudes to non-Catholics and non-Christians or ex-Christians. Jesus himself says that we will be surprised at the number and kinds of people who will enter into his Kingdom. Let us make sure that we will be among them. Lent is a time to make the right preparations.

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