Luke 11:29-32

Jonah, starting out, doesn’t seem like much of a prophet, does he? He’s a frightened man fleeing the task God gives him–to preach repentance to the great city of Nineveh. He thinks it can’t be done. Not only does he think himself unable to preach repentance to that city but, as we see later in the story, he doesn’t think they deserve to be forgiven. He has a low estimation of God’s forgiveness.

He can’t stop the sailors who thought he cursed their ship from throwing him overboard. He would have been finished if the whale that swallowed him didn’t vomit him onto the shore at Nineveh.The people of Nineveh listened to Jonah and begged God for forgiveness. God calls Jonah to be his messenger of forgiveness.

In Jesus, a greater than Jonah calls us to take up his mission. Jesus announced his death and then rose from the belly of the earth. That’s his great word, his message of hope — God’s forgiveness. That message must be proclaimed to the whole world and the world must hear it.

Paintings and sculptures of the story of Jonah, like the above, often appear in the early Christian catacombs of Rome. There’s Jonah thrown to the whale. On the upper right panel, Moses strikes the rock and water flows, a sign of Baptism promising life. (Note the water flows over the whale) On the panel upper left, Jesus raises Lazarus from the grave.

The story of Jonah raises our hope and nourishes our prayers. God offers us a great mission and a great vision. As it was with Jonah, we may find it beyond our understanding and think our world unredeemable, but we are called to believe in the great mercy of God. but we are called to believe.

“Have mercy on me, O God, in your kindness” we pray in Psalm 51, our responsorial psalm today. Is that the prayer of one person, or is it the prayer of the whole world, yearning for forgiveness, like the people of Nineveh?

Lord,
I believe in the sign
that lifted you up and blesses us,
the sign of your Cross.
You bring resurrection and life to the world,.
Help us believe in what is beyond anything we know..
Amen.