In today's first reading, Jonah 3: 1-10, the prophet Jonah goes to Nineveh to announce to it a message God gave to him. That message was: "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed." The people of Nineveh believed God and "proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes." The king and his nobles proclaimed a decree that everyone fast, including animals: "Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water....[E]very man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath."
What if God, angry at the evil that exists in the world of today, sent a prophet to announce a message which said: "Forty days and the world shall be destroyed," would we listen? Would we, from the greatest to the smallest, repent? Would those who sit on "high places" proclaim a fast, clothe themselves in sackcloth and sit in ashes or would they dismiss the message as nonsense and go out to their golf courses, wining and dining with friends, continuing acts of evil toward those in "lowly places,"continuing to build walls and pile up nuclear weapons or any kind of weapons with which to commit acts of violence toward fellow human beings and would they, also, continue negating treaties and agreements that protect the earth from being destroyed?
Looking at ourselves personally, what would you or I do if we were given a message that our time here on earth was drawing to a close? For what would we need to ask forgiveness? Of what behaviors/attitudes would we need to repent? What changes would we need to make that would indicate that we realize how we have not upheld the covenant we made with God at our baptisms and God made with us or how we have not lived up to our marriage or religious vows?
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