In today’s first reading, Jonah 3: 1-10, Jonah reluctantly goes
through Nineveh prophesying that in forty days Nineveh will be destroyed
unless they repent of their wrongdoing, stop doing the violence they intended
to do, cease doing evil and return to the Lord.
As far as Jonah is concerned these are a hardened people bent on evil,
wicked to the core and not deserving of God’s mercy. In fact when they do repent, put on sackcloth
and enter into a severe fast—partaking of neither food nor water—and calling
loudly upon the Lord for mercy, God relents of the punishment he was going to
inflict upon them. Nineveh is not destroyed and, as we know, Jonah vents his anger at God for being compassionate. How could He be merciful and kind to such a
wicked lot, Jonah must have reasoned.
As we look upon our world this day, we may be today’s “Jonahs,”
saying to ourselves: “How, Lord, can you
show mercy to Isis, Al-Quaeda, Putin,
Assad, those who are engaged in human
trafficking, drug trafficking, human slavery of any kind, and/or all forms of violence.
How, Lord? Warn them? Why, Lord? They are a wicked people bent on evil.” We may be thinking that they deserve to be destroyed for all eternity. God, however, does not give up on no one, not even you and I in
our sinful way of thinking. Every human being is a child of God, created to
further the Kingdom of God here on earth, sent here to accomplish a good, to
carry out, in His name, a specific mission entrusted
to no one else. Each of us is precious in God’s eyes, a son or a daughter made
in God’s image and likeness. In agony,
Jesus intercedes for each of His Father’s children and asks us to do the same,
to never give up. It may be those last moments of life that “the thieves” of
this world become the “good thieves” and beg for God’s mercy, as they “hang” on the cross of their death and
turn to God because of the power of your intercessory prayer. May it be so! May it be so, is my prayer! What is yours?
No comments:
Post a Comment