The book of Jonah is a short book in the Old Testament. If you have never read the book of Jonah, I recommend reading it. Also, I recommend watching the "Veggie Tales" version. It certainly brings the story to life. It's also quite humorous! The prophet Jonah is portrayed in the Veggie Tales version as an asparagus.
The plot of the book is about the People of Nineveh. Jonah has been instructed by God to walk through the city of Nineveh and deliver a message of repentance. When the people heard the message, they quickly repented. They stopped doing evil in the sight of God.
But the book is more about Jonah's lack of conversion. First of all, when God tells Jonah to deliver the message, Jonah runs away from God. He boards a ship to Tarshish. Tarshish is a city far away from Nineveh. Why? Because he doesn't like the city of Nineveh. He wants God to destroy the city. However, God relented and showed mercy upon the people of Nineveh. Jonah became quite angry and unhappy.
Now, Jonah is a prophet that loves God. He is very close to God. He is a holy and devout prophet. Jonah has the gift of prophecy. But if you look into his heart, he is lacking mercy and love. He doesn't have the gift of mercy in his heart. God wants to give him that gift, but he outright rejects that gift. He doesn't love the people that God sends him to. God gives him an entire city (120 thousand) to minister to, but his heart is not in it. He doesn't love the people that he is working with.
You can imagine the conversation between God and Jonah.
God: Jonah, I want you to go to the city of Nineveh and turns their hearts to me.
Jonah: Sorry Lord, I don't want to. No can do! Find someone else. I'm outta here."
God: Well, Jonah, we'll see about that. Why don't you meet my friend, Moby Dick.
When we go against God, God will introduce us to some of his friends.
Jonah is also a gifted preacher. The population of the city of Nineveh is about 120 thousand people. It is a rather large city. It would take three days to walk through the entire city. But it only took Jonah one day/24 hours to bring conversion to the entire population (120 thousand people). If we only had a tenth of his gift, we would be very effective preachers. No preacher is as good or effective as Jonah. "Lord, just give me one day, and the entire city will turn to You!" That's how good of a preacher is Jonah.
But he lacks in mercy. In many ways, we are all like Jonah. The Heavenly Father wants to give the gift of mercy/forgiveness to us. But we have a choice. We can either accept that gift or like Jonah, reject the gift.
The hardest thing may not be forgiving others. Rather, it is forgiving oneself. It is okay to allow oneself to have a SECOND CHANCE. It's okay have a spiritual reboot and start over.
The sin against the Holy Spirit is believing that I can never be forgiven. That's the sin of Adam and Eve. That's the sin of PRIDE. Pride always comes before the fall. When they disobeyed God, they didn't turn to God for forgiveness. Instead, they hid from God.
In regards to mercy we can see the contrast between St. Peter and Judas. Both were disciples and both did something wrong. Peter denies Christ three times. Judas betrays him. Judas couldn't forgive himself. But St. Peter humbly relies upon God's mercy.
(Speaking of St Peter) Recently, I attended a retreat. The retreat was directed by Fr Scott Friend. He is from Little Rock, Arkansas. The story is told that there was a Bishop from Little Rock that went on record for voting against Papal Infallibility. Fr. Scott says that his diocese is known for being the Little Rock vs the Big Rock (Papacy).
He shared a story about his pilgrimage to Rome. He went twice and shared it with us so that we could be jealous of him being able to go twice. At one point he had a tour of St. Peter's Basilica. The tour guide was a well-renowned archaeologist. She spoke about St. Peter's tomb, and the bones of St. Peter.
The background, he shared, is that Nero was the Roman Emperor of the time. He loved to play with fire. He blamed disciples of Christ for the fire that nearly destroyed Rome. So the disciples were persecuted and crucified at the Coliseum. Then afterwards, the Romans would light the body on fire so that people could see it from a distance. This was a fear tactic employed by the Emperor.
But the Romans were also superstitious. If the people could take down the body quickly, they could give it a proper burial. St. Peter was also crucified like Christ. But he didn't feel worthy. So St. Peter requested to be crucified upside down. When they removed his body from the cross, they had to do it quickly. His feet, however, was tightly fastened to the cross. They couldn't remove his feet. When his bones were later discovered, they didn't find the bones of his feet.
Fr Scott shared with us that when he heard the story, he loved St Peter all the more. Here, this Old Man who struggled many times to be faithful to Christ, and made lots of mistakes along the way, was faithful at the end. St Peter understands that God is merciful.
Jonah doesn't fully understand God's compassion/mercy. That is okay. We're like Jonah. We'll never fully understand God's mercy. But we "lift high the cross" of Christ.
When we look at the cross of Christ, some of us may focus on his wounds. Some of us may see his crown of thorns. Some of us may see his blood coming forth from his hands, feet and side. But we must look deeper. We need to look into his heart. When we can see into his heart, we know that he loves us. Then we will operate and conduct ourselves beginning with his Sacred Heart, full of love and mercy.
The Gospel passage takes place at the Sea of Galilee. Christ begins his ministry by recruiting disciples. He invites them and they leave everything to follow the Lord. The disciples can see into his heart. When they are with Christ, they know they are loved. The love of Christ compels the disciples (Simon, Andrew, James and John) to leave their boats and nets (and Father Zebedee) and follow him. Christ look upon them with love. The love of Christ is attractive. It brings order to our soul. Blessed be his Most Sacred Heart!
Glory be...
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