Bible Study Guide: The Book of Jonah

Oops. I inadvertently deleted the post in which I provided a link to my newly revised Bible Study Guide on the Book of Jonah. Truly inadvertent. I thought I was deleting a draft version of the post, but it turned out to be the published version. I think it was originally posted about a week or so ago.

Anyway, for those who care, you can access the guide to the Book of Jonah here: Study Guide - Jonah. 

I hope you find it of some value as you continue your study of Sacred Scripture.

God’s peace...

Homily: Monday, 16th Week of Ordinary Time (Year II)

Readings: Mic 6:1-4, 6-8 • Ps 50 • Mt 12:38-42

“…an evil and unfaithful generation” [Mt 12:39]. Jesus came on pretty strong here, didn’t he? Actually, only moments earlier he’d called the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” [Mt 12:34], so I suppose this wasn’t so bad.

Poor Pharisees. They seemed to be in conflict, didn’t they? They saw all the wondrous things Jesus did, and were attracted to Him. But, at the same time, they just couldn’t accept that this humble teacher was anything special. It really bothered them that in essence He’d declared Himself greater than the Temple and the Sabbath, greater than Abraham and Moses, and now, greater than Jonah and Solomon.

And so they asked for a sign. To which Jesus seemed to reply: 

Stop looking at your scrolls and laws; just look at Me, the One standing before you. Everything God has already told you points only to Me. 

And it’s this self-revelation by Jesus that bothered them no end. Indeed, just a few verses later, Jesus said to them:

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” [Mt 13:16-17].

And yet, they still asked for a sign. They heard His words and witnessed His deeds, but it was all encased in His humility. And this they couldn’t understand. How can the Messiah, the Lord of History, God’s anointed One, be a servant?

Imagine Jesus’ frustration. These Pharisees, these teachers of the Law, still didn’t realize that Jesus Himself was the sign for which they searched. They demanded to see what was standing right before them.

Jesus must have been thinking back to those words of Micah from our first reading:

“You have been told…what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God” [Mic 6:8].

Here they were, able to walk with their God, the God they wouldn’t recognize because they rejected the humility. They simply wouldn’t listen. Yes, indeed, an “evil and unfaithful” generation. They ignored Jesus Himself, preferring to hear words and words and more words, instead of embracing the Word of God standing in their midst.

"the LORD commanded the fish to vomit Jonah upon dry land"

You reject Me, and yet you demand a sign from me?

Oh, yes, you will certainly receive a sign, the Sign of Jonah – Jonah whose preaching about an unseen God led the king of Nineveh to cover himself in sackcloth and sit in ashes. But before his prophetic preaching, before his mission to Nineveh, Jonah spent three days buried away from the world in repentance for his sins. How did Jesus put it?

“Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” [Mt 12:40].

He was made sin...

Jesus was buried not for His sins, but for our sins. As St. Paul reminded the Corinthians:

“For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” [2 Cor 5:21].

Jonah saved the Ninevites by admitting his own sin and repenting. He allowed himself to be thrown into the sea, but not into death, for God saved him.

Jesus, who is sinless, saves the world by taking on the sins of the entire human race. He becomes sin, every sin from the very beginning of time, and weighed down by it all, He throws Himself into death, into real death.

You see, brothers and sisters, it’s all for the Pharisees, it’s all for the sinners, it’s all for us.

Tell this to everyone you know. Shout it in the streets, in the marketplace, tell your children and grandchildren, tell each other. 

God won’t abandon us because of our sinfulness; He won’t abandon us because we turn our backs on Him who loves us.

This is the “Sign of Jonah.” It’s the Sign of the Cross.

It’s this sign that lets Him break through our resistance to His Love.

After He was raised up on the Cross, Jesus Christ lowered Himself – that was His mission. In total humility He descends, lowering Himself into the lowest, darkest places of creation, just as Jonah was lowered into darkness.

But Jesus goes further; He goes into the darkest depths of the human heart, and it’s there He brings the Light of Christ.

Homily: Wednesday 1st Week of Lent

Readings: Jonah 3:1-10; Psalm 51; Luke 11:29-32

When I was growing up, my dad had a boat. It was a powerboat, a 26-foot cabin cruiser, and every summer our family spent many weekends cruising Long Island Sound. Occasionally we’d take longer, week-long trips along the coast of southern New England.

On the first of these extended trips – I think I was about eight years old – we ran into some very heavy weather. The rough seas and high winds tossed our little boat around like a cork, and my dad, worried we might be swept overboard, sent my brother and me down below into the cabin. Well, it was pretty boring down there, so I just stretched out on one of the bunks and within minutes had fallen asleep. And for three hours, as the boat rolled and pitched, I slept like a rock, and only awoke as we tied up at the marina in Mystic, Connecticut.

My dad thought it remarkable that I could sleep through all that rough weather, and recalling how Jonah had done pretty much the same thing during his storm at sea, took to calling me Jonah whenever we were aboard the boat. He also remarked that “when the going gets rough, the tough go to sleep.” From a very early age, then, I felt this personal connection with Jonah, the hero of today’s first reading.

The Book of Jonah is really a very amusing book, a droll telling of a splendid little story about the judgment and mercy of God. And in reading it, we find it populated with this wonderful cast of characters. They’re all remarkably likable – well, perhaps Jonah himself is a bit fussy, but even in his grumpiness we can sympathize with him. After all, haven’t we all, at one time or another, argued with God about the events in our lives or the lives of those we love? In truth I think we see ourselves in Jonah, a man motivated as much by his selfishness, his bigotries and fears, as he is by his faith. And the rest of the cast -- the pagan sailors, the king, the Ninevites, even the city’s animals – they all come across as straightforward folks, as guileless, likable characters.

But more importantly, this short Old Testament book is really a prelude to the Gospels, for in it we witness God’s plan of salvation, a plan extending beyond the chosen people to all of humanity. We also witness God’s mercy in the presence of sincere repentance.

In today’s Gospel passage Jesus warns the religious leaders of His day. Always asking for signs, they’re unable to see the sign right before their eyes, Jesus Himself. They’ve already rejected the message of John the Baptist, and now they’re rejecting the very one they’ve been waiting for, the Messiah Himself.

The Ninevites heard and accepted the word of God spoken by Jonah, and they repented. Jonah was God's sign and his message was the message of a merciful and forgiving God. But Jonah was more than a sign; he also foreshadowed Jesus Himself. Jonah spent those three days in the belly of the fish before being released onto the land – a prefiguring of the greatest sign of all, Jesus’ three days in the tomb before His glorious Resurrection.

This is the sign that Jesus gives that evil generation, a generation no more evil than our own. He gives the sign of His death and Resurrection: the sign of His overwhelming love, and a sign of hope, that His power knows no limits. There is no greater sign than this.

And, like Jonah, but infinitely greater, Jesus is also a sign of conversion, a sign that calls to us especially during this season of Lent. He too preaches repentance and conversion to a generation that seems always to be looking for signs.

Do we really need miracles to believe? I hope not, at least nothing more than the miracle of the Eucharist, the miracle of Emmanuel, of “God with us” every day until the end of time. I know the love of God is more than enough for me.

And we too are called to be signs. The best sign you and I can give to the world is our reformed lives and our genuine love for each other. Jesus began His public ministry by calling us to do just that. In His words: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” This is what we should focus on during this Lent: accepting Jesus’ invitation to turn back to God, and discover the mystery of joy and freedom in that turning. This is what we should desire. This is what we should pray for this Lent.