SOMETIMES   JONAH 

CAN  STILL  BE  HEARD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this First Wednesday in Lent  is, “Sometimes Jonah Can Still Be Heard.”

This morning’s first reading is from the Book of Jonah.

Jonah is a short little book in the Old Testament that’s only 4 short chapters.  We hear from him on just one Sunday – the 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B – so that’s only 1 Sunday every 3 years.

We hear from him every other year for 3 days in a row – the 27^th Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – and from one other weekday, today Wednesday in the first week of Lent.

For such a short little book or scroll, that’s not bad – and Jonah is mentioned a few times in the New Testament - like today’s gospel.

FISH STORY

We all know the fish story in the Book of Jonah – that he’s on a boat – running away in the opposite direction from God – and the boat starts having big time storm problems – so the crew figure out it’s he who is the problem – so they toss him overboard.

He ends up being swallowed by a big fish – and is inside the fish’s belly for 3 days – and then is burped out onto the shore he’s supposed to be headed.

It’s a parable. It’s a legend. It’s a made-up story to teach a lesson.

What I get out of it is that I can be a disaster in a sermon – and somehow God catches fish from my babble and blarney.  Every priest finds out in life that someone thanks him for a sermon – telling a lesson he never intended.

SECOND STORY

We all know the second great message in the Book of Jonah.  It’s not in today’s readings – but it’s a great message.  Jonah is hiding out and cooling off under the big leaf of a gourd plant – while waiting and watching for the destruction of Nineveh.  The plant shrivels up and Jonah gets really upset – and God gets really upset with Jonah for worrying about himself and not the 120,000 people in the city who were going to perish – and many animals as well.

We’ve all seen people who have fallen into that trap many a time – worrying about the tiny – and missing the big problems all around them.

FAST, FAST, FAST

And the third message is the message of fasting – probably put here because fasting is one of the regular 3 practices for Lent: fasting, praying and almsgiving.

CONCLUSION

If we read the book of Jonah, we’ll first wonder, “How did this story get in here?” and then we’ll realize: “Okay, now I get it. Amen.”