by Jose Kurian Puliyeril

Gospel Reading : Jonah Chapter 3 and 4. Verse for devotion : Jonah 3:10

The third chapter of Jonah starts with our Lord God's call to Prophet Jonah. In 3:1-2 we read, "And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, arise go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee" Here we find Jonah as cent percent obedient to God. In verse 3:5 we read " so the people of Nineveh believed God" when they heard the cry of Jonah that the great city of Nineveh shall be overthrown within forty days. How did they believe it as the word of God? Because they were sure that Lord God had deputed him. In Deuteronomy 18:22, we find the Lord's teaching about his Prophet. There we read, When a Prophet speaks in the nameof the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is thething which the Lord has not spoken it presumptuously; thou shall not be afraid of him". This must be reason for Jonah's displeasure while God had forgiven to the natives of Nineveh. He might have thought about the pity condition if his prophecy was proved to be bogus and his own. This must be the reason for his unrest and unhappiness.

There is a great influence of Jonah's attitude on the modern man When we hear about the problems or agonies of one of our fellowmen, Suppose one of our friends is hospitalized for some or other severe disease. All would be happy to pray for him and visit him and of course to tell others about the seriousness of his illness. When we would hear that he is discharged from the Hospital as he got complete cure, our immediate reaction wont be perfect happiness. In the inner heart we might be desiring to see him as a patient for some more time. We could find people reacting soon on hearing such goods "is it true, I can't believe" like that. When we love others, we must love with our open heart. We must praise Lord when we learn about the cure of the patients we were praying since long. When the natives of Nineveh fasted they did it with fully. In our prayer book weread, "when the infants cried for the breast feed, the mothers also cried in loud voice." When Jonah cried and exhorted the people to repent, the news reached the mighty king. It is said in our prayer that the people loyal to the king had asked "who is he to order against the mighty kingdom. Who is he to ignore the mighty king? Why he is making the Judgment against us". Still the King was also moved, as he also took it as a word from God. The King only ordered the strict fasting. And when saw that the natives of Nineveh have repented well and left all their evil deeds, He felt sympathy on them. We are also fasting, praying and observing the Lents. But we cannot implement a radical change in our lifestyle. After the fasting and lent we will go back to our old life style of living according to selfish motives. We must make a change in the life style. After a good repentance, we should not wear the dirty cloth which we threw away once. Only Holy Spirit could help us to have a life style pleasing to God Almighty. So let us pray for abundant supply of Holy spirit in us.