Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
The Ninevites hear God’s call to repentance from the prophet Jonah. They respond by sitting in ashes and turning away from their violence they do to one another. They repent and God welcomes them home. What we don’t get from the first reading today is the context that Jonah doesn’t like the Ninevites and would rather God smite them than have his preaching be successful! He would rather they burn than be asked by God to welcome them as sisters and brothers.
God’s mercy is wide. It extends to each of us, no matter our background or history. And, it extends beyond our boundaries. Jesus reminds the crowd of this today. The sign of Jonah is a sign of resurrection; Jonah’s three days in the whale prefigure Jesus’ three days in the tomb before his resurrection. The sign of Jonah also points to the wideness of God’s mercy. Those we would rather not spend eternity with might, in fact, be with us in heaven. I once heard Catholic speaker Gloria Purvis reflect on this, saying essentially, if I want you to go to heaven and I want to go to heaven, we’re going to spend eternity together, so I might as well start making friends with you now!
I wonder if the wideness of God’s welcome may have been more challenging to the crowd than the idea of Christ’s resurrection. Some days, it’s more challenging for me, both to receive for myself and to offer others. Just one week ago today, we marked ourselves in ashes. Like the Ninevites who sat in ashes and left violence behind, how are we practicing what Pope Leo often calls an “unarmed and disarming peace?” There are many little ways to do this:
- Refraining from sarcastic comments, even the little barbs about the dishes!
- When frustrated with someone pausing and asking, “what back story am I constructing about this person’s intent? Is there another story I could tell myself that is more charitable and also possible?”
- Smiling at someone and asking how they are doing, then pausing and following up when their words don’t match their demeanor.
- Reaching with kindness to someone who is not kind to you
- Fasting from reacting on social media, and instead attempting genuine charitable dialogue.
God’s mercy is wide and extends beyond our divisions and boundaries. Like the Ninevites, may we turn away from violence. May we practice an unarmed and disarming peace. Like Jonah and the crowd Jesus addresses, may we be prepared to welcome the unexpected into the kingdom. May we stretch our own practice of mercy to more like the wideness of God’s mercy.
—Kelly Adamson