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Discovering the breadth of God’s mercy

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Jonah 3:1-5, 10.

This Sunday’s reading is from The Book of Jonah. This is the only time in our three year Sunday cycle that we hear from this book of the Bible.

Jonah is counted as one of the 12 minor prophets, but this book is different from the books of the other eleven minor prophets and different from most of the other books of the Old Testament. It is not a collection of oracles pronounced by the prophet. Instead, this author (whose name we do not know) gets his message across by telling a story, a fable about a difficult man named Jonah.

The book seems to have been written in the fifth century B.C., but the story is set in a time several centuries earlier. Its setting is a time when the most powerful nation in the Middle East was Assyria, a kingdom that was cruel and ruthless toward its enemies, squeezing out tribute and wealth from those it defeated in order to build splendid cities like Nineveh. In many ways, the Assyrians were the Huns or perhaps the Nazis of the ancient world.

Once upon a time God called a man named Jonah and told him to go preach repentance to the Assyrians in Nineveh. Jonah did not want to preach to the Ninevites, and so he tries to run away from God. Instead of heading east into Assyria, he books passage on a boat headed west to Spain, about as far away from Nineveh as one could get. God sends a storm. The ship is destroyed. Jonah ends up in the sea where he is swallowed by a whale. After three days God rescues Jonah from the belly of the whale and sends Jonah again to preach repentance to the Ninevites. This time Jonah obeys God and goes to Nineveh, although he is still not enthusiastic about delivering God’s call to salvation to these terrible people.

This is where our reading begins. "Jonah went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s bidding." It was a great city, the text says, fifty or sixty miles across! Jonah begins to walk through this metropolis proclaiming a brief but clear message, that in forty days (a rather long and generous time line) Nineveh would be destroyed. All of a sudden everybody repents. Nineveh is saved because, thanks to the Ninevites’ change of heart, God revises His plans and does not destroy the city.

The lesson of our reading, and of The Book of Jonah, is that God’s compassionate mercy is wider and more generous than we are inclined to expect. Indeed, it is wider and more generous than we are inclined to think is appropriate. Can God love even the Assyrians? Jonah didn’t seem to think that God should, but God did, in spite of what Jonah thought.

The reading has been chosen to prepare us for the first part of this Sunday’s gospel reading (Mark 1:14 f.). There we find Jesus beginning His public life, proclaiming the gospel of God: "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." It’s quite a short message, like Jonah’s. And, as it unfolded in Jesus’ public life, it proved a troubling message for some. Many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time thought He was too soft on sinners. They were disturbed that He spent so much time with bad people, with the politically and socially incorrect, with those who didn’t pay adequate attention to the ritual observances that distinguished good Jews from the rest of corrupt humanity. They were unable to believe that the Father’s compassion was as wide-ranging as Jesus seemed to be saying. They wanted to put limits on God’s mercy. Jesus’ message was precisely the opposite: there are no limits to the compassion of God.

We need to hear this message of Jonah and of Jesus with some regularity, because we can easily find ourselves trying to reduce the scope of God’s goodness. We are inclined to think that God only offers salvation to nice, good people (like ourselves!). But that’s not the way it is. God loves all of human kind, and offers His salvation to all sorts of unlikely people and proclaims that love and salvation through His Son, Jesus. Jesus loves and wants to forgive Nazis and Communists, those who practice genocide and those who oppress the poor, child abusers and murderers. There is no crime that is too great for Jesus to forgive. There is no group that is too wicked for Jesus to bother with. Jesus loves wild liberals and rock bound conservatives, Republicans and Democrats. Jesus’ most basic message is that the Father’s desire to give and to save is universal, that His merciful compassion is unlimited.

It all comes from God’s goodness. It’s all a manifestation of God’s generosity.

And to try to limit God’s generosity is to slander our heavenly Father.

For Reflection and Discussion.

Whom am I inclined to exclude from God’s mercy?

Do I find the breadth of God’s mercy comforting or challenging?



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	*Overtures* Reflection on the first readings of the Sunday liturgy By Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk Discovering the breadth of God’s mercy Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Jonah 3:1-5, 10. This Sunday’s reading is from The Book of Jonah. This is the only time in our three year Sunday cycle that we hear from this book of the Bible. Jonah is counted as one of the 12 minor prophets, but this book is different from the books of the other eleven minor prophets and different from most of the other books of the Old Testament. It is not a collection of oracles pronounced by the prophet. Instead, this author (whose name we do not know) gets his message across by telling a story, a fable about a difficult man named Jonah. The book seems to have been written in the fifth century B.C., but the story is set in a time several centuries earlier. Its setting is a time when the most powerful nation in the Middle East was Assyria, a kingdom that was cruel and ruthless toward its enemies, squeezing out tribute and wealth from those it defeated in order to build splendid cities like Nineveh. In many ways, the Assyrians were the Huns or perhaps the Nazis of the ancient world. Once upon a time God called a man named Jonah and told him to go preach repentance to the Assyrians in Nineveh. Jonah did not want to preach to the Ninevites, and so he tries to run away from God. Instead of heading east into Assyria, he books passage on a boat headed west to Spain, about as far away from Nineveh as one could get. God sends a storm. The ship is destroyed. Jonah ends up in the sea where he is swallowed by a whale. After three days God rescues Jonah from the belly of the whale and sends Jonah again to preach repentance to the Ninevites. This time Jonah obeys God and goes to Nineveh, although he is still not enthusiastic about delivering God’s call to salvation to these terrible people. This is where our reading begins. "Jonah went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s bidding." It was a great city, the text says, fifty or sixty miles across! Jonah begins to walk through this metropolis proclaiming a brief but clear message, that in forty days (a rather long and generous time line) Nineveh would be destroyed. All of a sudden everybody repents. Nineveh is saved because, thanks to the Ninevites’ change of heart, God revises His plans and does not destroy the city. The lesson of our reading, and of The Book of Jonah, is that God’s compassionate mercy is wider and more generous than we are inclined to expect. Indeed, it is wider and more generous than we are inclined to think is appropriate. Can God love even the Assyrians? Jonah didn’t seem to think that God should, but God did, in spite of what Jonah thought. The reading has been chosen to prepare us for the first part of this Sunday’s gospel reading (Mark 1:14 f.). There we find Jesus beginning His public life, proclaiming the gospel of God: "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." It’s quite a short message, like Jonah’s. And, as it unfolded in Jesus’ public life, it proved a troubling message for some. Many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time thought He was too soft on sinners. They were disturbed that He spent so much time with bad people, with the politically and socially incorrect, with those who didn’t pay adequate attention to the ritual observances that distinguished good Jews from the rest of corrupt humanity. They were unable to believe that the Father’s compassion was as wide-ranging as Jesus seemed to be saying. They wanted to put limits on God’s mercy. Jesus’ message was precisely the opposite: there are no limits to the compassion of God. We need to hear this message of Jonah and of Jesus with some regularity, because we can easily find ourselves trying to reduce the scope of God’s goodness. We are inclined to think that God only offers salvation to nice, good people (like ourselves!). But that’s not the way it is. God loves all of human kind, and offers His salvation to all sorts of unlikely people and proclaims that love and salvation through His Son, Jesus. Jesus loves and wants to forgive Nazis and Communists, those who practice genocide and those who oppress the poor, child abusers and murderers. There is no crime that is too great for Jesus to forgive. There is no group that is too wicked for Jesus to bother with. Jesus loves wild liberals and rock bound conservatives, Republicans and Democrats. Jesus’ most basic message is that the Father’s desire to give and to save is universal, that His merciful compassion is unlimited. It all comes from God’s goodness. It’s all a manifestation of God’s generosity. And to try to limit God’s generosity is to slander our heavenly Father. For Reflection and Discussion.** Whom am I inclined to exclude from God’s mercy? Do I find the breadth of God’s mercy comforting or challenging?

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