Saint Casimir
Biographical Information about St. Casimir
Readings for Wednesday of the First Week in Lent[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Readings and Commentary for Wednesday of the First Week in Lent:[3]
Reading 1: Jonah 3:1-10
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
"Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you."
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD's bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,"
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh,
he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe,
covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his nobles:
"Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything;
they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God;
every man shall turn from his evil way
and from the violence he has in hand.
Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish."
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Jon 3:1-10
Following his miraculous rescue from the belly of the great fish, the Prophet Jonah is sent to Nineveh, a traditional enemy of the Jews, to spread the news that, unless they repented their ways the city would be destroyed. It is not explicit in this reading but Jonah was sure he would fail and the city be destroyed. This reading, then, describes his unexpected success and God’s subsequent redemption.
Placed in context of the season of Lent, the reading reminds us of the need for repentance and the promise of God’s mercy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm:[4] Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19
R. (19b) A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19
Consistent with the theme from Jonah, this selection from the great penitential psalm is a lament. It expresses sorrow for sin and an understanding of the need to reform the heart.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel: Luke 11:29-32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, he (Jesus) said to them,
"This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Lk 11:29-32
Jesus’ message, in this reading, echoes Jonah’s call to repentance but this time is it is directed to the Jewish people. Instead of a prophet he uses himself; “Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.” The reference to the “queen of the south” is a reference to the Queen of Sheba who in the first book of Kings (1 King; 10, 1ff) came and saw God’s wisdom in Solomon. Using this imagery, the Lord refers to himself as Wisdom incarnate.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
We look today at a single message – the call to repentance. It is delivered first by Jonah and then by Jesus who contrasts his own message to that delivered by the unwilling prophet those many centuries before.
Jonah was called by God to go to Nineveh so that they could be warned that their lack of belief in the one true God and their actions flowing from that unbelief would result in the destruction of their city. Jonah did not expect his announcement to them to be heeded. The Ninevites were in constant tension with the Jews. They frequently fought and would certainly disinclined to listen to a warning from a rather inauspicious representative of the people they disliked and a God in whom they did not believe.
To Jonah’s great amazement, the people of Nineveh listened to his warning and repented in the hope that “…God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.” We note that Jonah did not promise salvation in his message. There was no reward offered for the conversion of heart that the people of Nineveh expressed.
We contrast this tale of God’s mercy with what occurs in the Gospel passage. The Lord was with a crowd of Jews and had just rebuffed them because one had claimed that the reason he was able to cast of unclean spirits was he was from the Evil One. Set against his discourse on the house divided against itself comes Jesus’ assertion that the faith of the people he addresses is weak and that God will offer them only “the sign of Jonah”, the promise of their own destruction unless they repent. Contrasting the call to repentance by Jonah with his own, he tells the unbelieving crowd that the “Son of Man”, the Messiah, is greater than the Prophet Jonah.
Jesus continues with another reference from the Old Testament – The story of the Queen of Sheba who had heard of the Wisdom of Solomon and came from a distant land in faith to learn God’s word even though she was not of the Hebrew faith. She, Jesus tells the crowd, will sneer at their unbelief and judge them unworthy because the Wisdom of the Son of Man is far greater than the Wisdom of Solomon.
The contrast between the historical biblical figures of Jonah and the Queen of Sheba and Jesus serves to place a sense of urgency on top of his already compelling call to repentance. Our Lenten introspection clearly shows that while we know and understand what our faith calls us to live, we have frequently failed. We see clearly the times we have turned our backs on those the Lord calls us to love. We find in our hearts those times we have rejected the difficult path that leads to life in Christ and acceded to the easier way of the secular world.
Repentance and conversion are actions we are called to take on a daily basis. It does not happen all at once. Our faith, the faith Jesus will examine when he sits on the seat of judgment, must be like the faith of the people of Nineveh who accepted an inelegant call to holiness from an unexpected source; it must fly in the face of logic and be innocent as the faith of a child.
Today we ask for forgiveness and offer our contrition to God through Jesus the Christ. We ask for his mercy, the same mercy he showed to the Ninevites, with our heartfelt promise that we will do our best to grow in faith and love and to follow him more closely.
Pax
[1] ALTRE
[2] The picture used is “Jonah Leaves the Whale’s Belly” by Tintoretto, 1577-78
[3] Text of Readings is taken from the New American Bible, Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[4] Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.
Biographical Information about St. Casimir
Readings for Wednesday of the First Week in Lent[1][2]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
Readings and Commentary for Wednesday of the First Week in Lent:[3]
Reading 1: Jonah 3:1-10
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
"Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you."
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD's bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,"
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh,
he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe,
covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his nobles:
"Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything;
they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God;
every man shall turn from his evil way
and from the violence he has in hand.
Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish."
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Jon 3:1-10
Following his miraculous rescue from the belly of the great fish, the Prophet Jonah is sent to Nineveh, a traditional enemy of the Jews, to spread the news that, unless they repented their ways the city would be destroyed. It is not explicit in this reading but Jonah was sure he would fail and the city be destroyed. This reading, then, describes his unexpected success and God’s subsequent redemption.
Placed in context of the season of Lent, the reading reminds us of the need for repentance and the promise of God’s mercy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm:[4] Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19
R. (19b) A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19
Consistent with the theme from Jonah, this selection from the great penitential psalm is a lament. It expresses sorrow for sin and an understanding of the need to reform the heart.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel: Luke 11:29-32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, he (Jesus) said to them,
"This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Lk 11:29-32
Jesus’ message, in this reading, echoes Jonah’s call to repentance but this time is it is directed to the Jewish people. Instead of a prophet he uses himself; “Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.” The reference to the “queen of the south” is a reference to the Queen of Sheba who in the first book of Kings (1 King; 10, 1ff) came and saw God’s wisdom in Solomon. Using this imagery, the Lord refers to himself as Wisdom incarnate.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
We look today at a single message – the call to repentance. It is delivered first by Jonah and then by Jesus who contrasts his own message to that delivered by the unwilling prophet those many centuries before.
Jonah was called by God to go to Nineveh so that they could be warned that their lack of belief in the one true God and their actions flowing from that unbelief would result in the destruction of their city. Jonah did not expect his announcement to them to be heeded. The Ninevites were in constant tension with the Jews. They frequently fought and would certainly disinclined to listen to a warning from a rather inauspicious representative of the people they disliked and a God in whom they did not believe.
To Jonah’s great amazement, the people of Nineveh listened to his warning and repented in the hope that “…God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.” We note that Jonah did not promise salvation in his message. There was no reward offered for the conversion of heart that the people of Nineveh expressed.
We contrast this tale of God’s mercy with what occurs in the Gospel passage. The Lord was with a crowd of Jews and had just rebuffed them because one had claimed that the reason he was able to cast of unclean spirits was he was from the Evil One. Set against his discourse on the house divided against itself comes Jesus’ assertion that the faith of the people he addresses is weak and that God will offer them only “the sign of Jonah”, the promise of their own destruction unless they repent. Contrasting the call to repentance by Jonah with his own, he tells the unbelieving crowd that the “Son of Man”, the Messiah, is greater than the Prophet Jonah.
Jesus continues with another reference from the Old Testament – The story of the Queen of Sheba who had heard of the Wisdom of Solomon and came from a distant land in faith to learn God’s word even though she was not of the Hebrew faith. She, Jesus tells the crowd, will sneer at their unbelief and judge them unworthy because the Wisdom of the Son of Man is far greater than the Wisdom of Solomon.
The contrast between the historical biblical figures of Jonah and the Queen of Sheba and Jesus serves to place a sense of urgency on top of his already compelling call to repentance. Our Lenten introspection clearly shows that while we know and understand what our faith calls us to live, we have frequently failed. We see clearly the times we have turned our backs on those the Lord calls us to love. We find in our hearts those times we have rejected the difficult path that leads to life in Christ and acceded to the easier way of the secular world.
Repentance and conversion are actions we are called to take on a daily basis. It does not happen all at once. Our faith, the faith Jesus will examine when he sits on the seat of judgment, must be like the faith of the people of Nineveh who accepted an inelegant call to holiness from an unexpected source; it must fly in the face of logic and be innocent as the faith of a child.
Today we ask for forgiveness and offer our contrition to God through Jesus the Christ. We ask for his mercy, the same mercy he showed to the Ninevites, with our heartfelt promise that we will do our best to grow in faith and love and to follow him more closely.
Pax
[1] ALTRE
[2] The picture used is “Jonah Leaves the Whale’s Belly” by Tintoretto, 1577-78
[3] Text of Readings is taken from the New American Bible, Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[4] Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.
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