Nineveh was the capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire, the Gentile political power of its day. So large was Nineveh that “it took three days to walk through it” (Jon. 3:3). Despite its exalted status in the ancient world, the Ninevites heeded God’s call to repent through his prophet Jonah.
New Covenant Fulfillment
In speaking to his fellow Jews in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus conveys that he is the New Covenant fulfillment of the sign of Jonah. For just as the Old Testament prophet spent three days in the belly of a whale, “so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (Matt. 12:40). Similar to how Jonah remarkably survived his time in a whale, Jesus miraculously rose from the dead after three days in the tomb. (A side note: for the ancient Israelites, “three days” could mean portions of three consecutive days, not necessarily a strict 72-hour period.)
In addition, as Jonah was a witness to the Gentiles of his day, Jesus has a similar but much greater mission in which he calls us to share: to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19, emphasis added). The Latin word for “nations” is “Gentiles,” which refers here to non-Jews.
Because Jesus did rise from the dead and establish his one Catholic Church, the restored and fulfilled Davidic kingdom of Israel over which he reigns as “the King of kings” (Rev. 17:14; see Acts 2:22-36), the Church’s mission to the nations continues apace two thousand years later.
Progress
Already in the late fourth century, St. Ambrose of Milan commented on the Church’s progress:
The mystery of the Church is clearly expressed. Her flocks stretch from the boundaries of the whole world. They stretch to Nineveh through penitence. . . . The mystery is now fulfilled in truth.
And all the more so since then, as the Church’s missionary outreach extends to all seven continents and—to one extent or another—every nation in the world.
Do we appreciate that God has blessed us with “something greater than Jonah” and “something greater than [King] Solomon,” David’s immediate royal successor who greatly expanded the Old Covenant kingdom of Israel? Solomon’s greatness began to unravel while he was still alive, and that’ll happen when you have many wives and concubines to keep happy through various political alliances, instead of wisely relying on the Lord (1 Kings 11:3; see Song 6:8).
Greater than Solomon
In contrast, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) provides, Jesus through his Church illustrates how he is indeed greater than Solomon, and in a way that can appeal to people of all backgrounds:
What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe “because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived”. So “that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.” Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability “are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all”; they are “motives of credibility” (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is “by no means a blind impulse of the mind” (CCC 156, emphasis added, footnotes omitted).
Let us share the two-thousand-year story of Jesus and his Church, including employing these motives of credibility to further make our case. And let us otherwise do our part, living with God’s grace as fruitful, childlike saints (see Matt. 18:1-4), rooted in the strength of the sacraments, so that the number of Christ’s disciples increases markedly unto great abundant heavenly joy.
