I have often come across people who appear to be very interested in religion but express great fear of God’s presence. Some feel they have done so many terrible things that God can hardly forgive them. Such feelings are often very deep-rooted and lead to many emotional disorders. We suffer from such syndromes when we refuse to accept our weaknesses and refuse to forgive ourselves for past failures. Such a frame of mind may not necessarily hate God, but at the same time, it does not see God as stooping to forgive all the atrocities committed. People with such a mentality prefer to remain in sin, as they see no hope of mercy from God.
The consequence is that conversion becomes very difficult. It is good to note that we come to God after sinning because we are confident He will forgive. Every generation has its own baggage of evil and deserves God’s wrath, but the divine mercy comes to the rescue.
Mercy is the game changer, and God Himself tells us that He is a God of mercy and compassion. Because mercy and compassion form part of God’s very being as God, the divine mercy pursues us and even precedes our repentance. In fact, His mercy is the motivating force of our repentance. What matters is our courage and willingness to say no to sin and come back to God, who is always ready to welcome us.
This is the whole point of today’s readings, as they stress God’s unfathomable mercy and forgiveness. We find it in the highly artistic book of Jonah. We see it in the famous words of Psalm 51 and, more affirmatively, in the words of Jesus in the Gospel of the day, Luke 11. It is an apt message to begin the season of Lent.
God and the People of Nineveh
The first reading is about Jonah’s preaching and the repentance of the people of Nineveh (Jon 3:1-10). The author of the book presents the character, Jonah, as a stubborn and disobedient prophet who rebels against God’s desire to bring good tidings to a sinful nation. Even when Jonah eventually obeys the command to preach to the people of Nineveh, he proclaims only a message of doom: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed” (Jon 3:4). This is all he preaches. His actual intention is to preside over the destruction of Nineveh, which he considers an evil city. One recalls that Nineveh was the ancient capital of Assyria, and it was Assyria that destroyed the Northern kingdom of Israel.
So, every Israelite was inclined to hate Assyria and its people. This historical background could be understood as a motivation for Jonah’s original reluctance to go to Nineveh. However, the doom’s day message of Jonah produces a response of intense conversion among the people of Nineveh. The entire population responds to the prophet’s words with a proclamation of national repentance and fasting. All recognize the sovereign power of God and humbly submit to it. God surprises Jonah by withdrawing His sentence of death on Nineveh and granting the city pardon. The story of Jonah and the Ninevites underlines the point that God is the One who controls the prophet and is not manipulated by the prophet. No human being can prevent God from being compassionate with His creatures. No prophet can disrupt God’s mercy and kindness.
The Boundless Mercy of God
The Psalmist of Psalm 51 knows that God will never spurn a contrite and humble heart. He strongly believes in God’s compassion, and this conviction leads him to approach the throne of grace for healing. What propels every act of repentance is hope alimented by strong faith. It is hope in God’s kindness of heart, which is ever ready to welcome the sinner. It is usually the love of God that draws the sinner closer to him just as the love of parents draws their erring and prodigal children back home. The story of Jonah and the Ninevites teaches the point that God welcomes every repentant sinner of any nationality. Psalm 145 affirms that “the Lord is good to all, compassionate to every creature” (145:9).
The Courage to Change
In the Gospel text of Luke 11:29-32, Jesus laments the hardness of heart of the evil generation before him, a generation that seeks only signs and wonders and refuses to change. He presents the case of the repentance of the people of Nineveh at Jonah’s preaching as a sign of God’s mercy and an example of conversion to imitate. The people of Nineveh needed no other sign to repent of their evil ways other than the preaching of Jonah. What matters in life is the courage to change. The fear of change makes us remain on the fence.
Conversion is a total turnaround, and sometimes it means doing violence to our usual habits and time-honoured routine. With respect to God, it is like a leap into the unknown deep. But our assurance is that with God we are never rejected, as He ever welcomes repentant sinners. Repentance means the courage to come back to God after wandering away. As we begin the liturgical season of Lent, we are all called, both as individuals and as a group, to a sincere change of heart. Today, we groan under the weight of the human evils we have unleashed on our world. But hope is not lost. No matter how evil a heart, generation, or society may be, sincere repentance changes everything and puts one at friendship with God.
[Readings: Jon 3:1-10; Ps 51:3-4,12-13,18-19; 1Cor 1:10-13,17; Lk 11:29-32]
