To discern and obey

The sign that Jesus is giving this evil generation is the sign of Jonah. The sign given to Jonah is the Word of God. Our first reading narrates the second time the Word of God came to Jonah. The first words of the first reading indicates: “ the WORD of the LORD came to Jonah a second time...” This second time was about Jonah’s mission to preach repentance to the Ninevites, and so was the first. However, I would like to focus on the fact that Jonah’s point of discernment and eventual obedience is the Word of the Lord.

This invites us to ponder on the Word of God as the fundamental data and primordial criteria to our discernment and eventual obedience. The revealed Word of God has taken place in a culture. The Written Word of God is a product of living Culture which we call Sacred Tradition. We see how God

has made himself known and how he conveyed his message always in a context, in a situation, in a way of life and in a culture.

The importance of the culture in discernment is vital. We decide according to how we perceive reality, events and our way of life. We discern according to how God revealed himself through our own way of life. The Word of God presents itself in the Vows made at our profession of vows. It manifests itself in the vows of Married life as well as in the single blessed life.

When I was asked to go to Bolivia, which was not in my list of preferences, I asked the Lord for a sign. Shall I go? Will I bargain? Will I beg off? But the sign has been given right at the very beginning in the forms of the Vow of Obedience and the Missionary character of our congregation. To be sent outside our preferences, is well part of our way of life as a religious missionary congregation, the way of life I consciously signed up for. To be sent is our brand of holiness.

We create our own cultures and rituals. We create our way of life. But a life lived according to the Gospel, a way of life conformed according to the Word of God is a way of life to wholeness and holiness.

---

FIRST READING

Jon 3:1-10

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:

“Set out for the great city of Nineveh,

and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”

So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,

according to the LORD’s bidding.

Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;

it took three days to go through it.

Jonah began his journey through the city,

and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,

“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,”

when the people of Nineveh believed God;

they proclaimed a fast

and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh,

he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe,

covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.

Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh,

by decree of the king and his nobles:

“Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,

shall taste anything;

they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.

Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God;

every man shall turn from his evil way

and from the violence he has in hand.

Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath,

so that we shall not perish.”

When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,

he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;

he did not carry it out.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19

R. (19b) A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;

in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.

Thoroughly wash me from my guilt

and of my sin cleanse me.

A clean heart create for me, O God,

and a steadfast spirit renew within me.

Cast me not out from your presence,

and your Holy Spirit take not from me.

For you are not pleased with sacrifices;

should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;

a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

GOSPEL

Lk 11:29-32

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,

“This generation is an evil generation;

it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,

except the sign of Jonah.

Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,

so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

At the judgment

the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation

and she will condemn them,

because she came from the ends of the earth

to hear the wisdom of Solomon,

and there is something greater than Solomon here.

At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation

and condemn it,

because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,

and there is something greater than Jonah here.”