Being a Prophetic Voice (3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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Jonah is best known for his refusal to preach to the people of Nineveh, and his subsequently being swallowed by a large fish while trying to escape. In Jonah 3-4, he was asked again to preach to the Ninevites, and this time he reluctantly accepted. This reading tells us that he preached in the city for three days, and they listened and repented, so God spared them. The rest of the chapter relates to us the measures that the inhabitants of the city took:

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. (Jonah 3:6-10)

The next chapter tells us that Jonah was upset at God for this, and that Jonah knew all along that this would be the result. His reluctance to preach to the Ninevites was due to his national pride (after all, the Assyrians were subjugators of the Israelites), and his reluctance to see them come to repentance. God’s response shows us that He desired to show mercy upon all nations, not just Israel. This would find fuller expression in the New Covenant, when God creates a new people, the Church, comprised of every nation, tribe and tongue.

This story also teaches us the importance of the faithful acting as God’s prophetic voice to the world. This is why this passage is connected to our Gospel reading (Mark 1:14-20). Both are about God raising up men lead others to true faith. All the faithful–clergy and laity–have this prophetic call as God’s Church. Although each believer lives under different circumstances, we all have the opportunity and obligation to be a prophetic witness to the world through our words and actions. We must point others to Christ, and urge them to repent and believe.

J. Luis Dizon