27th Week, Ordinary Time, Wednesday, Oct 6
Jonah 4:1-11 / Luke 11:1-4
Jonah loses his perspective; He couldn’t see beyond his own world.
A seven-year-old boy was on a school bus. He swallowed a crayon that lodged itself in his windpipe. The bus driver tried to flag down a motorist to rush the boy to a hospital, but no one would pull over to help. Finally, the desperate driver forced a motorist to stop by blocking the traffic lane with his own body.
But the motorist still refused to help, because he would be late for work. When the boy finally reached the hospital, he was beyond help.
Like Jonah in today’s reading, people can become so preoccupied with their own problems that they can’t see the much bigger problems other people have.
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How clear is our own vision when it comes to seeing beyond our own problems? “I was angry about the old shoes I had to wear, until I saw a man one day who didn’t have any feet” Author unknown
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Whenever we think about God and justice, we may have this idea of divine judgement and punishment. When we look at all the evil that is happening around us, we will immediately think of the evil that affects us personally, and also the wide-spread evil like terrorism. We might like to think that God will one day send forth His judgement on those evil-doers and they will get their retribution. Such might be the thoughts of Jonah as he began his mission, and secretly he wished divine retribution upon Israel's most hated enemy, the Assyrians, the people who lived in Nineveh. Yet when it did not happen, he began to sulk and he began to talk sarcastically as we heard in the 1st reading:
Ah, Lord, is not this just as I said would happen when I was still at home? That was why I went and fled to Tarshish. I knew you were a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, relenting from evil. Nice words, but may not be so as it came from a fuming Jonah who wanted to see the people of Nineveh punished. So now, what is our reaction when God does not seem to punish the evildoers or gives them another chance, or when He seems too patient with them.
But let us remember that for any true conversion to take place, there must be compassion and mercy, which will lead to reconciliation. That is the justice of God - God is merciful and compassionate. What He can forgive, He will not punish. And that is what we ask for in the Lord's prayer, that we will also be merciful and compassionate, and we forgive others just as God forgives us.
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God is a saving God. He calls all people to salvation in Jesus Christ, and he does not discriminate or segregate. His kingdom is open to all people, all races, all cultures, all languages, and all walks of life. And those who are most in need are given preference. For he is the Father of all and cares for those for whom people do not care. Do we do enough to bring his Son to all? Do we open the Christian community to all, without any discrimination? Or is there a bit of Jonah alive in us?
The disciples must have admired Jesus when he prayed, for when he had finished, they asked him to teach them to pray. This is indeed what we too should ask him in this eucharist, that our prayer may be wide and deep like his, giving honor to the Father and bringing to him the stream of the needs and concerns of all. And like him too, in our prayers, we try not to bend God’s will to ours, but ours to God’s will and Intercessions.
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Prayer: God, you are tender and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, and reluctant to punish. You want all people to share in your love. God, make our love as worldwide as yours. Make us grateful for all you have given us through your Son Jesus Christ, that the zeal of a missionary Church may gather everyone into your kingdom, and that all may call you Father, forever and ever. Amen
