In today's first reading, Jonah 1: 1-2: 2, 11, the Lord said to Jonah: "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me." The wickedness in today's world also comes up before God. Is it possible, as in the case of Jonah who fled to Tarshish "away from the Lord," that many people today are also fleeing from God, doing whatever possible to escape following God's will to address the corruption, the deception, the wickedness of sin-laden humankind? Is it possible that the turbulence in any part of the world--natural or man-made "storms" --are the result of our having abandoned God? Do we need someone, as did Jonah, to confront us with the question: "What are you doing asleep? Rise up, call upon your God. Perhaps God will be mindful of us so that we may not perish" in our wickedness!
With the psalmist, in today's responsorial psalm, we pray:
Out of [our] distress [we call] to the Lord,
and he [answers us];
From the midst of the nether world [of corruption, deception, and violation of law and of people's rights [we cry] out for help,
and you [hear our voices].for you cast [us] into the deep [of sin-infested behaviors], into the heart of the sea [of an abundance of lies and abuses of power],
and the flood [envelops us];
All your breakers and your billows
[pass over us].
Then I said, 'I am banished from your sight!
...When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
[Our] prayer reached you...'"
Lord, God, have mercy upon us who have strayed from the path of righteousness, truth and justice in the search for wealth or an abundance of material things and pleasures of all kinds, especially pleasure at the expense of the innocent. Forgive us, Lord, for wanting things our way instead of Your way and the way Jesus modeled for us!
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