The Sign of Jonah

Homily for Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

The people of Nineveh had a blank slate as far as information about God goes. They did not believe in the God of Israel. Nineveh was one of many enemies as far as the Israelites were concerned. The destruction of Nineveh would have been considered fortunate and wonderful in the minds of the Israelites.

So, when God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach repentance, it would’ve been the furthest notion in Jonah’s mind. He did not want them to repent. He would have delighted in their destruction. This is why he disobeys God’s command and tries to run away.

Of course, we know the end of this story. Thrown overboard from the ship on which he was fleeing, he was swallowed by a great fish or a whale which spewed him up on a beach not far from the Nineveh. When he goes to the city and preaches that God will destroy the city unless they repent, to his dismay they heed his warning, one and all. He goes down in history as the only prophet of Israel who succeeds in converting a city of sinners. God spares the city much to Jonah’s disappointment. This is why Jesus says that they will put God’s chosen people to shame, because they took Jonah’s preaching seriously while those who actually heard the preaching of Jesus were too self-absorbed to change their lives.

There is no excuse now for being unmoved by the words of Christ, for we have two thousand years of proofs of what he said: the powerful events in the history of the church, inspired art and great spiritual writings, the glories of the saints, and the way so many genocides and holocausts show the destructive power of atheistic governments and tyrants. “Will the way we live our lives do?” we ask. Christ answers our question with one of his own, “Do what?”

The whole point of Lent is conversion, repentance. We are asked to turn away from sin and to put our faith in the Gospel of Jesus. If we can do this, then we can also say that the way we live our lives will do.