Jonah

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We all like second chances! Jonah may not have liked his second chance as God calls him to go and preach to the Ninevites. He is now again on dry land after being in the depths of the sea and the belly of ? “a large fish”! So God calls him again. He is to proclaim to the people of Nineveh that they only have forty days left to repent. God’s wrath then will obliterate them—that is his hope and possibly his prayer! Jonah listens to God and does have a second chance. His only prophetic oracles is the following: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.” Now it is the Ninevites turn to listen to God through Jonah’s prophesy; they do and carry out such a stupendous fast that it extends from the royalty to the people and even to their livestock and all of their created world. Finally, God now sees and listens to them—the dreaded Ninevites and sees how totally sincere and severe they are in their returning to him with profound sorrow and repentance for their sins.

Jonah is not at all happy with the success of his preaching that makes him the most successful of prophets when it comes to effecting a total conversion of a people. He rejects this success like a spoiled brat who did not get his way. Even though his prayer is filled with excerpts from over a dozen psalms, he still is sad and begins to pout about what has happened.

We, in reading this creative piece of inspired biblical literature, with a listening heart and often use it to spur ourselves on to turn again to God through the sacrament of reconciliation or through personal contrition. This is also the key prophet who is used in the synagogues today on Yom Kippur the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. The entire book is read on Yom Kippur in the afternoon service. Sins are remembered and forgiveness is asked for from God. The book of Jonah lives on in a remarkable way as we learn to imitate the Ninevites in our fasting and prayer. We take the message of the inspired writer who is not Jonah very seriously, but we are equally surprised at the satire and humor of this imaginative narrative so different from the other prophetic books of the Bible.

It is more than a fisherman’s tale. It is the living voice of God calling us back to himself whether we be a self righteous pouter like Jonah or one of the repentant Ninevites. We return heart, soul and mind to our Creator in our act of contrition and repentance.

Thus even if Jonah is a fictitious person, we go to the heart of the Biblical message and its deeper meaning. The Spirit of God gives us this amusing tale and stirs us to repentance. Like the Ninevites we have caught the message of forgiveness, repentance, and absolute trust in the mercy of God. We have made a “Teshuvah” or Return to the Lord with all our hearts. Amen.