In today's first reading, Jonah 3:1-5, 10, Jonah goes to Nineveh and begins a three-day journey through the city sharing God's message: "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed." At the end of the first day, the people of Nineveh "believed God...proclaimed a fast and...put on sackcloth".
In the Gospel, "Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: 'This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel'". In the first reading, we are told that "[w]hen God saw by their actions how they [the Ninevites] turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out."
We, in this day, I believe, are being called to repentance of both social and personal sins, of evils being committed against women, against immigrants, against children by eliminating the CHIP program, against the poor by the "tax reform" program that will steal millions from the poor to line the pockets of the rich and that will deprive millions of health insurance. "Repent and believe in the gospels."
In what ways am I violating the rights of others? In what ways am I being deceitful, greedy, using more of this world's goods and thus depriving others of basic needs (wasting food or water, polluting the air)? In what ways am I lining my pockets at the expense of others less fortunate than I?
"Repent and believe in the gospel," living as Jesus lived!
Am I a repentant?
No comments:
Post a Comment