February 24, 2010
Wednesday of the First Week in Lent
“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. Jonah 3:8-10
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
Piety
Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense. Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me. For I know my offense; my sin is always before me.
Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight That you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn. True, I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me. Still, you insist on sincerity of heart; in my inmost being teach me wisdom.
Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, make me whiter than snow. Let me hear sounds of joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Turn away your face from my sins; blot out all my guilt. A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit.
Do not drive me from your presence, nor take from me your holy spirit. Restore my joy in your salvation; sustain in me a willing spirit. I will teach the wicked your ways, that sinners may return to you.
Rescue me from death, God, my saving God, that my tongue may praise your healing power. Lord, open my lips; my mouth will proclaim your praise. For you do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering you would not accept. My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.
Study
The reference to the “sign of Jonah” works on two levels of meaning in today’s Gospel. First, the audience would have been familiar with the story in the first reading. So they could interpret is as referring to “the preaching of the need for repentance by a prophet who comes from afar.” However, it also alludes to the need for the death inside the whale and the return to life of Jonah. While the audience would have know about Jonah and the whale, at this point in the narrative, Jesus alone knows that “the sign of Jonah” also is a foreshadowing of his own death and resurrection.
An effective preacher/prophet helps to move his audience to change their behaviors. Jonah got the people of Ninevah to “repent.” Jesus also seeks to have the evil ways of his generation “repent.” If earlier generations repented at the preaching of Jonah and the wisdom of Solomon, then surely they would react even more so to “something greater” that is represented in the teaching and person of Jesus.
But what does repent really mean in this context against the charge of “evil?” Dictionaries will tell us that repentance means to feel such sorrow for sin or fault as to be disposed to change one's life for the better. Or as the 1969 Carlos Santana song implores, “You’ve got to change your evil ways, baby before I stop lovin’ you. Lord knows you’ve got to change.”
Action
No matter what others tell us, change still has to come from within. Jonah or Santana or Jesus can tell us to change this or that but we have to decide for ourselves what change or changes we will make in our lives.
Sometimes we are spurred to action by the message delivered by a modern-day Jonah. But if there is no one to sound the warning bell, we are left to our own perception and decisions about what to change.
Psalm 51 shows us the steps we need to take to change. In it we hear the psalmist recognize his weakness and also recognize that without the help of God, he alone can not change anything.
Contemplate on what changes you are making in your life for this Lenten season and how you will carry that over beyond these 40 days with the help of the Lord.
