This week, in our first readings in our daily Masses, we hear from a different book of the Old Testament each day. Today, we hear a passage from the book of Jonah, which most Catholic Scripture scholars would not see as a historical non-fiction figure. Jonah receives a call from God to preach to a pagan people, but he tries so hard to flee from this call that he gets into a boat and gets swallowed up by a large fish. Jonah goes to the large Assyrian city of Nineveh, the capital city of a pagan people, to threaten its destruction by God in 40 days if they do not repent. The 40 days the God gives Nineveh reminds of the 40 days of the great flood from which Noah and his ark was spared, again with God inflicting punishment on a world that had turned its back on him. They number 40 also reminds of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert, of the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years, and the 40 days of our Lenten journey. Jonah is both shocked and dismayed that the Ninevites actually repent and do penance and believe in God. Even the king of Nineveh himself repents in an act of humility. It is interesting that even their cattle and their sheep fasted during this time with them, expressing the Ninevites’ urgency in seeking out God’s mercy. God looks with kindness as the Ninevites turn from their evil ways. In a Jewish faith that saw God’s love and mercy not extending to the Gentiles, this would have been a radical message for them to hear. This is perhaps a foreshadowing of the discussion that went on in the early Church, in which Paul sought to call Gentiles to become disciples of Christ. Perhaps the reading from Jonah is including in the daily Mass readings during the Lenten season to remind us of our need to repent, Perhaps this reading calls us to look at our attitude to people of different faiths.
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