"Of all the acts of man, repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults . . . is to be conscious of none."

by Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer

Scripture: Jona 3:1-5, 10

Some of you may know that I'm a "bachelor" this weekend. What you may not know is that I'm not a very good bachelor! I usually spend a lot of time watching mindless movies. This weekend, I'm going through the Star Wars series—in Blu-Ray! I haven't always been a fan of what are now known as Episodes 1 through 3—they aren't the original Star Wars! I've always much preferred the original films—even though the acting is pretty bad, and the effects are primitive by today's standards.

But I decided to watch them anyway. And this time I noticed something. When you only watch the original movies, Darth Vader is this evil, cruel, brutal villain. He's somebody just about anybody could love to hate, because he's the right hand of the emperor, the instrument of oppression, injustice, and cruelty in the galactic empire. But something different happens when you watch the new movies. You meet Darth Vader as cute, sweet, wounded little Anakim Skywalker! It's pretty hard to hate Anakim. Even when he whines like a spoiled teenage about not getting the recognition he believes he deserves. Even when he turns to the dark side of the force and becomes Darth Vader. You still have the image of that cute, sweet little boy!

In the days of Jonah, city of Nineveh represented the center of evil and brutality and cruelty. It was the capitol of the Assyrian kingdom, and they were known throughout the Ancient Near Eastern world as ruthless conquerors. Nineveh was to Jonah what Babylon and Rome would be to later generations.[2] It was a city that any Israelite would love to hate. You would think that Jonah, as an Israelite, would be happy that God was planning on destroying Nineveh. Of course, being happy about it, and obeying the call to go into the heart of the devil's den to announce it are two completely different things![3]

Despite his best efforts to the contrary, Jonah winds up in Nineveh, walking the streets and declaring God's impending judgment. And, lo and behold, the people of the Nineveh repent! Even such a brutal and hated city—called a "city of bloodshed" by the prophet Nahum (Nah. 3:1)—isn't beyond the power of God's Spirit to soften their hearts to repentance. No less than the "King of Nineveh" proclaims a fast on the odd chance that they might avert disaster.

And it would seem that not only is Nineveh not beyond the power of God's Spirit, it is also not beyond the scope of God's love and grace and mercy! In response to their repentance, God relents. Instead of rejoicing over the success of his preaching, Jonah goes off on a hillside to pout. Turns out he wanted the people of Nineveh destroyed—men, women, children, and even the animals![4] In fact, he admits that's why he ran the other way in the first place—he was afraid that God would have mercy on them (cf. Jon. 4:2). Seems Jonah had a terrible love of hating the people of Nineveh.

What is it that makes us so fond of this terrible love of hating certain people? For some of us, I think it is fear. There are many of us who are afraid that someone will take away what is ours, or violate our sense of safety and security by a crime or an act of terror. We are so afraid that we can only respond to certain people whom we have "decided" are criminals and terrorist with fear and hatred. For some, it is religious arrogance. They are so certain that they are on God's side and God is on theirs, that anyone who differs or disagrees with them in any way become not only their enemies but also God's enemies. And if they're God's enemies, then we're perfectly right to hate them. Or lock them up in prison camps as long as we please. Or summarily strip them of all human rights.[5]

I think that was Jonah's problem.[6] He bought into a version of the Jewish faith that basically said that they were God's chosen people and everybody else was not. All of the grace and goodness that God showered on the Jewish people made those who bought into this idea think that somehow they were immune from the possibility of displeasing God in any way. They believed, regardless of what they did, they were automatically on God's side. And as a result, everybody else was excluded. But it would seem from the story of Jonah that God had a lesson for all those who think they have an exclusive claim on God's love. Even godless, ruthless Nineveh is not so far gone as to put them beyond the reach of God's Spirit softening their hearts to repentance. Even the people that Jonah and others who shared his inflated sense of self-importance loved to hate are not beyond the scope of God's mercy and love!

Of course, it's all too easy for us to sit back from our comfortable vantage point and shake our heads at such religious egotism. But the fact of the matter is that we too have people we love to hate. During the era of the Second World War, for many people it was Adolf Hitler or Emperor Hirohito. That hatred shifts as one enemy after another falls by the wayside. During the "Cold War," the people we loved to hate had names like Khrushchev and Brezhnev. Then it was the Ayatollah Khomeini. Then it was Saddam Hussein. Then it was Osama Bin Laden. But no matter what, we always seem to have this terrible love of hatred. It seems we're not capable of seeing them as little children who were once as innocent and sweet as Anakim Skywalker.

The hard truth is that we share the terrible love of hatred that kept Jonah from rejoicing in the miracle of repentance and restoration wherever it happened. In fact, in the Christian faith, we have a place for the people we love to hate-we call it hell. And there are certain people we love to hate so much that we're all too happy for them to literally go to hell! And yet, the joyful lesson of this season, the good news of Epiphany-that wherever we are, God is there, loving us, nurturing us, drawing us into the joy of God's life and love-that wonderful good news isn't just ours to hoard; it is a message that applies to all people, everywhere. Even those we love to hate. Especially those for whom we cherish a terrible love of hatred. No one is so far gone that God's Spirit cannot bring them to repentance. No one is beyond the scope of God's mercy and love.

References:

[2] Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, s.v., "Jonah, Book of," by W. Neil; James Limburg, Hosea-Micah, 139-140.
[3] Cf. Phyllis Trible, "The Book of Jonah," VII:515 on the disjunction of an Israelite prophet preaching to the people of Nineveh.
[4] Cf. Limburg, Hosea-Micah, 152-57.
[5] Cf. Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu, Made for Goodness, 89, for a similar perspective based on the Rwandan genocide.
[6] On this view, see Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, s.v., "Jonah, Book of," by W. Neil, p. 967; for a range of different interpretations, see Trible, "The Book of Jonah," NIB VII:488-90.

by Larry Broding

Scripture: Jonah 3:1-5,10

1 The word of YHWH came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you."

3 So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of YHWH. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey across. 4 Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried out, and said, "In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!"

5 The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.

10 God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn't do it.
- World English Bible

[1] A century before the Babylonian exile, the northern kingdom of Israel was swept off the face of the earth by the ruthless Assyrians. Nineveh was the Assyrian capitol. The Israelites of the north were taken into captivity or intermarried with the Assyrians and adopted their pagan culture. The resulting religion of the area was questioned by the Jews. The area became known as Samaria, named after a city in the province.

The book of Jonah was written about the fifth century B.C. when the Jews returned home from the Babylonian exile. The Jews, seeing the destruction of Jerusalem, despaired and became withdrawn. The Jews began to dissociate themselves from their pagan neighbors. They saw themselves in exclusive terms ("The Chosen People") and the other nations as unclean.

The book of Jonah stood that belief on its ear. God commanded Jonah not only to mingle with these barbarians, but to become a prophet in their own capitol city. Like the Jews in the fifth century B.C., Jonah was skeptical and cynical of his mission.

[2] When the author refers to the Assyrians, the words "great" and "large" used several times. This follows the Semite tradition of exaggeration to make a point. Yes, the enemy was powerful, but the God of the Jews was all-powerful.

[4-5] Jonah does not even complete the mission, but only preached for one day. But, to Jonah's surprise, one day was enough. The Assyrians took the message to heart and believed.

[10] While it is not part of the reading, Jonah went outside the city and waited for the coming of God's wrath on the city. Yet, God relented because the Assyrians believed. Like many people, Jonah believed in God but not in other people, especially his enemies. The message of the story tells of the great mercy and love of God for everyone and the possibility of redemption.

Is our faith narrow like that of Jonah or can we see others through God's eyes?

by Frederick Buechner

Within a few minutes of swallowing the prophet Jonah, the whale suffered a severe attack of acid indigestion, and it's not hard to see why. Jonah had a disposition that was enough to curdle milk.

When God ordered him to go to Nineveh and tell them there to shape up and get saved, the expression on Jonah's face was that of a man who has just gotten a whiff of trouble in his septic tank. In the first place, the Ninevites were foreigners and thus off his beat. In the second place, far from wanting to see them get saved, nothing would have pleased him more than to see them get what he thought they had coming to them.

It was as the result of a desperate attempt to get himself out of the assignment that he got himself swallowed by the whale instead; but the whale couldn't stomach him for long, and in the end Jonah went ahead, and with a little more prodding from God, did what he'd been told. He hated every minute of it, however, and when the Ninevites succumbed to his eloquence and promised to shape up, he sat down under a leafy castor oil plant to shade him from the blistering sun and smouldered inwardly. It was an opening that God could not resist.

He caused the castor oil plant to shrivel up to the last leaf, and when Jonah got all upset at being back in the ghastly heat again, God pretended to misunderstand what was bugging him.

"Here you are, all upset out of pity for one small castor oil plant that has shriveled up," he said, "so what's wrong with having pity for this whole place that's headed for Hell in a handcart if something's not done about it?" (Jonah 4:10-11).

It is one of the rare instances in the Old Testament of God's wry sense of humor, and it seems almost certain that Jonah didn't fail to appreciate it.

by St. Cyril of Jerusalem

"And when we examine the story of Jonah, great is the force of the resemblance.

Jesus was sent to preach repentance; Jonah also was sent: but whereas the one fled, not knowing what should come to pass; the other came willingly, to give repentance unto salvation.

Jonah was asleep in the ship, and snoring amidst the stormy sea; while Jesus also slept, the sea, according to God's providence, began to rise, to show in the sequel the might of Him who slept. To the one they said, "Why are you sleeping? Arise, call your God, that God may save us;" but in the other case they say unto the Master, "Lord, save us."

Then they said, Call upon thy God; here they say, save Thou. But the one says, Take me, and cast me into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you; the other, Himself rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

by Fr. Daren J. Zehnle

The Lord Jesus Christ has "saved us and called us to a holy life," yet so very often we do not walk upon the path that he has set before us (II Timothy 1:9).

It takes only a brief few moments of honest reflection to know that we have sinned and have strayed from the fold of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep (cf. John 10:11).

Having given in to temptation we are in need of reconciliation, which is achieved through the great Sacrament of mercy, the Sacrament of Penance.

Meditating on the story of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8) we see, as it were, a sort of image of what happens in this Sacrament.

Examining our conscience - what we have done and what we have failed to do - we climb the interior mountain to that spot from which we look down on our lives. Ascending this mountain in prayer (cf. Matthew 17:1) we encounter the Lord, saying to him, "My heart has prompted me to seek your face; I seek it, Lord: do not hide from me" (Psalm 26:8-9).

We seek his face because there is within each of us a great longing, a yearning, for God. Saint Augustine put it this way: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and hearts are restless until they rest in you."[1]

Standing, then, before the Lord we look upon him and gaze upon the beauty of his radiant light and we become aware that we are not worthy to stand before him.

Moses and Elijah stand beside the Lord, conversing with him about "his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem" (Luke 9:31). The Law and the Prophets help us to see our sin, our transgressions of God's commands. Moses and Elijah help us to see the necessity of the Lord's Passion and Death, together with the great depths of his love.

Seeing his holiness, we see our sin. Seeing his loveliness, we see that we are not all too lovely and we fall prostrate, very much afraid before him (cf. Matthew 17:6). With our sin before us and all worldly things left behind, we know that "What a man is before God, that he is, and nothing more."[2]

Conscious of our sin, we, like that tax collector, can only stand off at a distance and we dare not lift our eyes, but beat our breast in sorrow (cf. Luke 18:13).

Like Saint Peter, we stand off at a distance – where it is comfortable – until the Lord looks upon us and we "remember the word of the Lord;" then we, too, begin "to weep bitterly" (Luke 22:61-62).

The only words on our lips are these: "O God, be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13).

Gazing upon the transfigured Lord we see his holiness and we are aware of our sinfulness. Seeing his glory we remember the source of this glory: the Cross of our salvation of which he spoke with Moses and Elijah. We remember, too, that his Cross is the result of our sin.

Conscious of all of this the fear of the Lord begins to take root in our hearts.

Perhaps this is a phrase with which we are not very familiar or do not like very much. But 'fear of God' is not anguish; it is something quite different.

As children, we are not anxious about the Father but we have fear of God, the concern not to destroy the love on which our life is based.[3]

Seeing his love and seeing our sin, we know that we have separated ourselves from his love; this is the cause of our fear, it is the fear of the loss of the love of God.

We fall prostrate before the Lord of heaven and earth because we know that our sin has distanced us from him but it has not distanced the Lord from us!

He does not abandon us, but hears our humble cry and comes to us. Remember the words of the Psalmist:

See, the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
to deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
- (Psalm 33:18-19)

We know that the Lord "loves justice and right" and because of his justice man is condemned on account of his sin, but we also know that "of the kindness of the Lord the earth is full" (Psalm 33:5).

The Lord's "judgments are true and just" (Revelation 16:7) but for those who seek his mercy, "mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13). We encounter this mercy in the Sacrament of Penance through which our sins are forgiven and we are reconciled with God.

We come then to the Church confessing our sins to the priest, who acts in the person of Christ and, in the name of Christ absolves our sin.

When the words of absolution are spoken, Jesus comes and touches us, saying, "I have 'destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light'" (II Timothy 1:10). "Rise, and do not be afraid" (Matthew 17:7).

Having been raised up by the Lord we are able to raise our eyes and look into his (cf. Matthew 17:8). The reconciliation – a word which itself means to "see eye to eye" is accomplished. We have no more reason to avert our gaze from the Lord; no longer does anything stand between the Lord and those who approach him in the Sacrament of Penance.

Is your heart at rest this day? Are you at peace? If not, know that it is because your heart is not resting in the Lord because your sin stands between you and Christ Jesus.

Why not approach the Lord's mercy this Lenten season? There is nothing to fear in the Lord. He turns no one away who seeks his mercy, who asks his forgiveness, who longs for his love.

Christ waits for you. Indeed, he has gone in search of you even as you continue to wander away from him. As he looks for us he calls out with the same words that we first called out: "My heart has prompted me to seek your face. Do not hide from me."

Do not stray any further. Turn and go to the Lord and you will know life, you will know love, and you will know peace. Amen.

References: