Memory of the Saints and the Prophets

Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Jonah 3,1-10

The word of Yahweh was addressed to Jonah a second time. 'Up!' he said, 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it as I shall tell you.' Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare; to cross it took three days. Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city and then proclaimed, 'Only forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown.' And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. He then had it proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles, as follows: 'No person or animal, herd or flock, may eat anything; they may not graze, they may not drink any water. All must put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone renounce his evil ways and violent behaviour. Who knows? Perhaps God will change his mind and relent and renounce his burning wrath, so that we shall not perish.' God saw their efforts to renounce their evil ways. And God relented about the disaster which he had threatened to bring on them, and did not bring it.

 

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

God seeks Jonah to entrust him with an important mission: he must proclaim the Word of God in the large city of Nineveh. God had already asked him once, as we read at the beginning of the book, but Jonah had fled. Nineveh was frightening to him because it was the enemy of Israel, the capital of the great Assyrian Empire, protagonist of so many wars waged to destroy the Kingdom of Israel. The text insists on emphasising the greatness of the city. The mega-cities of our time come to mind, which are frightening because of the number of problems they have to deal with. It is easy then to flee, to retreat into one's own little enclosure, thinking only of oneself. Jonah was overcome with fear, but after God's insistence, he finally listened to His voice and set out into the streets of Nineveh. His preaching was very clear and terrible: "Forty days more, and Nineveh will be overthrown." In reality, all preaching is intended to provoke conversion of heart and thus of behaviour. If evil is allowed to grow and develop in people's hearts and in the reality of life, it will inexorably bring the cities to ruin. Jonah had travelled only a third of the way through the city, one day's walk out of the three needed to cross it entirely, but already the inhabitants of Nineveh had taken him seriously: "They believed God; they proclaimed a fast." When Jonah's preaching reached his ears, even the king ordered the whole city to be involved in a gesture of repentance. The king and all the people, through the practice of fasting, hoped that God would change, repent, and lay down his anger. Indeed, fasting and prayer made God change his purpose, and the city and its inhabitants were saved. Jonah shows that one must always hope in the power of the Word of God: every time it is communicated it performs the miracle of change. No one, not even the worst enemy, is condemned to remain himself. The Word of God can indeed always and everywhere perform the miracle of conversion, of the victory of good over evil.