Invitation
May I hereby call your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with you the joy of the Gospel.
Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience that joy by opening his heart
to the healing effect of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
Both readings are about Jonah. The story of Jonah is exceptional in the O.T. God is concerned about the Ninivites, who are nevertheless pagans and not Jews. He wants their salvation; He wants them to repent. Remarkable enough: They do. Not because Jonah performs miracles, but they respond to his call to repentance. They return from their unholy ways and God accepts their repentance. Jesus compares the Jews to the Ninivites. His call to repentance also resonates but they demand a clear sign. This will not be given to them. They are given nothing more than Jonah’s sign, i.e. the urgent call to repentance, and in the absence of repentance they are judged more severely than the Gentiles. The call to repentance applies to each of us.
FIRST READING Jon. 3, 1-10
The inhabitants of Nineveh were returning from their unholy ways.
From the Prophet Jonah
The word of the Lord was
addressed to Jonah :
“Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city of Nineveh
and tell her what I have given you to say.”
Jonah got up and went to Nineveh,
as the Lord had commanded.
Nineveh was a great big city ;
three days were needed to pass through it.
Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s journey away.
Then he called out :
“Forty days more ,
and Nineveh will be razed to the ground!”
But the Ninevites sought their support from God ;
They declared a fast and all of them
from large to small, put on their clothes of repentance.
The word of Jonah also came to the ears of the king of Nineveh;
He arose from his throne, laid down his robe of state,
put on a robe of penitence and prostrated himself in the dust.
He had a proclamation made in Nineveh :
“By order of the king and of his empire’s greats!
“Men and animals, large and small,
shall eat nothing,
They must not graze or drink water.
“Men and beasts shall cover themselves in penitential clothes
and cry out to God with all their might.
Each one must turn back from his unholy ways
and from the iniquity that clings to his hands.
“Who knows whether God will not then come back to his decision
and regrets it;
who knows if He will not return Hhis flaming wrath,
so that we do not perish.”
And God saw what they did;
He saw how they returned from their unholy ways.
And God became sorry that He had threatened them with that calamity.
He did not carry it out.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 51(50), 3-4, 12-13, 18-19
What I sacrifice, God, is my penitence,
a crushed and humiliated heart Thou dost not reject.
God, have mercy on me in your mercy,
wash away my sinfulness in thy mercy.
Wash my guilt completely from me,
cleanse me from all my sins.
Create in me a pure heart, my God,
restore to me a firm mind.
Do not cast me away from your Face,
take not thy holy Spirit from me.
In gifts Thou hast no pleasure,
whatever I offer Thee, Thou wilt not have.
What I offer, God, is my penitence,
a crushed and humiliated heart Thou dost not reject.
VERSE FOR THE GOSPEL Ez. 33, 11
I am not pleased with the death of the wicked,
saith the Lord,
but rather in him that repenteth and liveth.
GOSPEL Lk. 11, 29-32
This generation shall not be given any other sign than the sign of Jonah.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
At that time,
when the people were gathered together, Jesus began to speak :
“This generation is a depraved generation : It desires a sign ;
but no sign will be given them
than the sign of Jonah.
“For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.
“The queen of the South shall rise at the judgment
together with the people of this generation;
and she shall judge them,
for she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon :
Well, here is more than Solomon.
“The people of Nineveh shall rise in judgment
together with this generation
and they shall judge it,
for they have repented at the preaching of Jonah :
Well, here is more than Jonah.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
– The gaze of Jesus
96. Jesus makes Biblical faith in God the Creator his own and emphasises a fundamental fact: God is Father. In the dialogues with his disciples, Jesus invited them to acknowledge the father relationship that God has with all his creatures, and reminded them with touching tenderness how each of those creatures is important in his eyes: “Can one not buy five sparrows for two pennies? Yet God does not forget any of them” (Lk 12:6) . “Observe the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them” (Mt 6:26) .
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for the weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation