A call to repentance
February 21, 2024 - Wednesday of the First Week in Lent
Jonah 3:1-10; Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19; Luke 11:29-32
The unifying theme of the Liturgy of the Word today revolves around repentance and the responsiveness of individuals or communities to God's call for a change of heart. It includes the warning of Jonah directed to the Ninevites, the psalmist's prayer of contrition, and Jesus' judgment over His contemporaries.
Most of us are familiar with the story of Jonah, that rebellious prophet who didn’t want to go to the enemies of his people to preach the word of God to them. As he states, he knew that God was merciful and the moment the Ninevites repented God would forgive them their sins. Jonah's message was that in three or forty days - the versions defer on the number of days - Nineveh would be destroyed. But, they were not.
Psalm 51 is linked to the sin of David narrated in 2 Samuel 11:1-27 and confessed when confronted by prophet Nathan (see 2 Sam 12:1-15). The psalmist is aware of his sinfulness and requests that God transform him asking for a clean heart and a steadfast spirit (see Ps 51:12). A similar attitude can be found in the book of Jonah describing the actions of the king of Nineveh and his hope that "God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish".
Among all the prophets of Israel, Jonah is the most successful one. All other prophets preached to their people, to Israel and Judah, telling them that if they did not change their way of life they would be punished, their cities destroyed and the population taken into exile. Unfortunately, all of them failed. The Assyrians destroyed the Northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC and the Babylonians the Southern kingdom of Judah in 586 BC. On the other hand, Jonah was sent to preach to the Ninevites, the citizens of the capital of Assyria, the archenemy of Israel. Nineveh was spared because they heeded the warning of a Jewish prophet.
In our passage from the Gospel, Jesus contrasts the Nivevites with His contemporaries who rejected Him and His message. They chose Barabbas over Him, the Zealots over Christ’s community, violence over loving enemies. That decision led to the tragic rebellion against the Romans that ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in the year 70 AD. And yet if only they heeded Jesus’ warning, things would be different. On the other hand, the Gentiles, like the Nineties, opened themselves to the preaching of the Gospel by the Jewish apostles of Christ and small communities of believers of Jesus were mushrooming across the Roman Empire. And their way of living prevailed over the mighty Roman Empire without any act of violence.
Jesus’ life and message remain a sign for every generation. The psalmist, the Ninevites, the Queen of Sheba, and the citizens of the Roman Empire are set before us as examples of conversion. They heeded the message of the Scriptures and changed the direction of their lives. How about us?