Sign of Jonah
The mention of the prophet Jonah in our Lenten liturgy may have to do with two points of connection:
1) Lent focus on repentance. For many people Lent is a season to recollect life and see what things need to be changed in one’s life. It is a call for metanoia. The prophet Jonah was an effective prophet of repentance for the Ninevites in spite of his own weakness.
2) Lent prepares us to celebrate Jesus’ death and rising. The high point of the season is the Paschal Mystery: Jesus rising after three days. Jonah’s stay in the belly of the whale for three days, before he was ejected alive on the shore of Nineveh, is seen by many as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ own stay in the dark belly of the tomb before his triumphant resurrection.
For me, the sign of Jonah is not only the sign of repentance, but also the sign of God’s Love. He never gives up on us.
There was a film, "Commandments," released a couple of years ago. The protagonist, Seth Warner feels that God has broken the Covenant. He is a contemporary Job. His pregnant wife has drowned, his home has been destroyed in a tornado (which spared all the other houses on the block), he has lost his job, and lightning struck him (and his dog). Since God has broken his promises, Seth feels it’s appropriate for him to strike back by breaking his end of the Covenant. He systematically breaks all the commandments to show God what he thinks of Him. His final violation is of the Commandment “you shall not kill.” His method of breaking that command is spectacular: he throws himself off a lighthouse in the midst of a hurricane. God’s response is equally spectacular. The next morning a crowd of people walking down the beach discover a dead whale. They cut it open and out of the whale’s belly there comes water, fish, and Seth Warner, very much alive. God has responded to his hatred with the Sign of Jonah.
God always responds one way or another, our hatred with his love. He never gives up. How do we respond to this love? Repent, like the Ninevites.
