At the preaching of Jonah they repented

Rm 1,1-7; Ps 97; Lk 11,29-32
14 OCTOBER

Let us become inhabitants of the great city of Nineveh for a moment. One morning a man, a stranger, a person never seen before arrives. This man travels far and wide from corner to corner the city, crosses all its streets and shouts: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed”. From the king to the last slave everyone listens, they believe and they get converted. Yet, in the city, this man did not perform any miracles, he gave no sign of his origin. He did not even name the God who had sent him. Only those few words. Fasting in order to obtain the forgiveness of the faults was also imposed on animals.

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 (Jon 3,1-10).

Now let us think for a moment of the inhabitants of Galilee or Judea. Jesus comes, performs every miracle, his wonders are without number, the signs that attest to his divine origin are incalculable. Everyone rushes to him for a grace for the body. Lepers, demoniac, blind, deaf, mute, paralyzed and suffering from every other disease. He has even risen some dead. He multiplied bread in the desert. He proved to be greater than Moses, Elijah, Elisha and the other prophets. His wisdom is infinitely beyond that of Solomon. With which results? Blind opposition to his word and his way of reading, interpreting and living the Law of the Lord. Solomon performed no wonder or miracle. He only had a great knowledge of things. Yet the Southern Queen came to listen to him, while Jesus is rejected by his generation. This is the historical reality in which Jesus is called to carry out his mission.

While still more people gathered in the crowd, he 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.

Since of every gift that is received, God will ask us account on the day of judgment, Nineveh will stand up and declare guilty the generation in which Jesus lived. It was converted by the words of a stranger. The generation of Jesus not only did not get converted to the words of the Son of God, but opposed them every contrast. It also nailed him to the gallows to stop teaching his gospel forever. Even the Southern Queen will rise up against the generation of Jesus. She has come from far away to listen to a man, a mere man. The generation of Jesus’ time did not want to listen to the Only Son of the Father. A very great gift and a very right judgment. This principle also applies to us. The Lord has given us every gift of grace and truth, he has given the Holy Spirit, the Church, the Sacraments and the Ministers of the Word. We are responsible before God on the day of judgment. Very true judgment.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that we do not waste even a fragment of grace.