Deep Repentance

"A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances." - Ezekiel 36:26-27 

Prayer: Lord, You have shown me such a beautiful life that I have never known. I thank you for being who you are. Continue to purify my heart from every evil and sinful inclination. I desire to be with You, but so often my choices and decisions say otherwise. Help me to fully integrate my desires, action, and words that they be wholly according to Your will. Amen. 

Deep Repentance 

Yesterday we heard God speak of the effectiveness of His word, that “It will not return to [Him] void, but shall do [His] will, achieving the end for which [He] sent it.” Today we see an example of the truth of the effectiveness of His word through the story of the reluctant heart of Jonah. 

Jonah has a difficult call. He is the only prophet in the Old Testament who is called by God to preach to a different group of people other than the Israelites, God's chosen people. God chose not friendly and good neighbors to the Israelites to send Jonah to, but enemies. So, when God calls his reluctant heart to go east by land, Jonah goes west by sea. And his purpose is not to circumnavigate the globe, but to get as far away as possible. As Jonah flees, a storm kicks up. Everyone else on board is panicked worried that they are going to die and Jonah, well, Jonah is asleep below deck. After trying everything else, all the other people are crying out to their gods, asking for help to no avail. And Jonah is, well, still asleep. They wake him up, and Jonah says nothing. They draw lots to see on whose account all this hardship is happening. The lot falls to Jonah and he tells them it is his fault and that he is fleeing God. Their response, 'how could you do such a thing?' Jonah says to throw him overboard. And then Jonah spends three days and three nights in the belly of a 'fish.' What ends up setting Jonah free is that he prays for deliverance in the belly of the fish. Meaning it took 3 days to move Jonah's heart to ask for deliverance and turn to God in prayer. And this is all the story that is the backdrop for today's first reading.

We hear, "Now Nineveh was an enormously large city, it took three days to walk through it." But for Jonah, even though he still has his reluctant heart, the word of God is effective. After only a day's journey, the entire city is called to repentance. Word reaches the King. The King repents, removing himself from his throne and lays aside his robe, he puts on sackcloth and ashes, proceeding to issue a decree. A decree that effects every element of their society, every corner, every nook and cranny, every person and beast. The wickedness that extends even to their hands is released. The repentance is deep and covers everything and everyone. 

Everyone that is except for Jonah. After all that Jonah has been through with the storm, the fish, the work of preaching, Jonah is not changed and repentant. Jonah becomes angry that they are repenting and he goes outside the city to sit in his anger. God repents and will not destroy the city.

The word God gave Jonah to proclaim was, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed." This seems to imply that the Ninevites have committed themselves to fasting and crying out for 40 days. So then if you go to the story of Jonah in the Bible it means that Jonah is willing to sit outside the city for 40 days, sitting there in his anger and reluctant heart, just waiting, hoping, that God will not spare the city that he was sent to preach to, calling them to repentance. Even after preaching, Jonah wants to sit there hoping to have a front row seat as the city is destroyed.

In the end God works on the heart of Jonah speaking to Jonah, but we as the reader do not know how Jonah's tale ends, did he let the word of God change his heart? Did he ask God to change every nook and cranny, every crevasse, all the depth of his heart like the Ninevites, or did he remain reluctant?

The story of Jonah and the Ninevites invites us to ask a similar question, am I willing to respond to the word of God like the Ninevites or like Jonah? 

May God richly bless you!

-Fr. Jeremy

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." - 2 Corinthians 12:9

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