“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet” (Mt 12:39).

Jonah is the prophet best known as the one who spent 3 days and nights in the belly of a whale, great fish or sea monster, depending on your scriptural translation. Jonah ended up in that predicament because he refused to follow God’s direction to speak his message of forgiveness to the sworn enemies of Israel, the Ninevites. It would be like God asking one of us to fly out to the Middle East to meet with members of ISIS or Al-Qaeda and invite them to repent. Not only would we not believe they would want to repent, would we want them to if they would? Also, whether they did or didn’t, would we be able to return from such a meeting with our heads intact?

These were probably some of the issues running through Jonah’s mind when he refused to follow God’s will. Jonah overcame his resistance and followed the command of the Lord, kept his head on his shoulders, and the people of Nineveh repented. Happy, happy, joy, joy! Not exactly. At the repentance of his enemies and God’s expression of mercy and forgiveness, Jonah said to God, “This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you were a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish” (Jonah 4:2)”. Jonah did not want his enemies to receive God’s forgiveness!

Some of the scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign. Jesus gave them the sign of Jonah: The Ninevites, who were Gentiles, non-Jews, were willing to repent at the word of Jonah, and those scribes and Pharisees before questioning him, God’s chosen, were not willing to repent at the urging of one greater than Jonah, the Son of God, who was in their midst.

Jesus announced his ministry, as recorded Mark 1:15, with the words: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” That is again our invitation today. Let us examine our conscience by asking God to help us to recognize his presence among us, then reflect on what good God has done in our lives and give him thanks. Review the last day or two to see where God has called us to act. Where did we answer his call, where did we, like Jonah resist? For those actions in which we did resist the will of God, especially in turning away from an opportunity to bestow God’s grace upon someone, or committing some other sinful action, we need to ask God for forgiveness. Finally, close by spending some quiet time asking God for his grace to be with us as we go through the day. This examination of conscience is an excellent exercise to practice at the end of each day. (This process I just described is called the Examen, a Jesuit practice I learned from Fr. James Martin, SJ).

Someone greater than Jonah is in our midst, he is Jesus the Christ. May we be willing to bestow his Love and Mercy on all we meet today, even and especially those who may have just popped into our mind that we would rather not share his grace with: those who get under our skin, grate on our nerves, or who we even consider an enemy. Let us repent and call others to do so by the way we live our life.

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Mass readings for today, Monday, July 24, 2017: