Today’s First Reading is the conclusion of the book of Jonah, who is a rare breed of prophet: a disgruntled one who carries out his mission grudgingly. As we’ve seen over the last few days’ readings, Jonah did not want to bear God’s message to the people of Nineveh, because there was bad blood between them and the Jews: it was the main city of Assyria, which eventually conquered and absorbed the Northern part of Israel into its empire. Jonah would prefer that such a menace be destroyed, but the Lord wants to give them a chance, and they take it when it is offered to them through Jonah’s warning.
Jonah bears a grudge against the Ninevites, and so he does his mission grudgingly. Ultimately in his prayer after seeing Nineveh’s repentance he tells the Lord that he resents the Lord’s compassion. At least he is maintaining communication with the Lord, who tries to show him the error of his judgment, but Jonah stalks off and sets up near the city to see if the Lord is going to destroy them or not: he still sets his hopes in something, but that something is not God’s will. He knows it’s not God’s will, but he doesn’t want to admit it. In the end Our Lord has to reach into Jonah’s narrow-minded and closed world to try and help him see the bigger picture: if the destruction of a little source of shade is so detestable to Jonah, shouldn’t the destruction of 120,000 people be even more detestable? The book of Jonah concludes with that thought, and we don’t know how Jonah reacted.
The Lord asks something of each one of us. If we’re listening, how are we trying to respond? Grudgingly? Our Lord is not shy about reaching into our narrow-minded and close world to draw us out into the bigger one. Let’s respond to Our Lord, and his plans, with generosity, casting aside all pettiness.
Readings: Jonah 4:1–11; Psalm 86:3–6, 9–10; Luke 11:1–4.