SAINT JOHN XXIII, POPE (OPTIONAL MEMORIAL)

You are a gracious and merciful God.

Did you know that Jonah made this proclamation of God’s grace and mercy as part of a complaint? I didn’t want to go to Nineveh, he whines, because I knew that you, Lord, would probably have mercy on them! God tries to get Jonah to realize that he has no reason to be angry about the salvation of the Ninevites, but to no avail. How ironic it is that throughout his story, Jonah is the one who ends up on the receiving end of the Lord’s grace and mercy.

Fortunately for us, God’s mercy doesn’t depend on our attitude. Merciful is who God is, and he offers his mercy to us because we all need it.

Jonah is a case in point. Still fuming that the Lord plans to spare the repentant Ninevites, he sets himself up on a sunny hillside to watch what he hopes will be the destruction of that hated city. Then when God sends him a wide-leafed plant to shade him from the sun and the oppressive heat, Jonah is delighted. He might even think he deserves that small consolation after all he’s been through. That is, until the next day, when the plant dies!

Once again, Jonah plunges into despair. And once again, God tries to teach him the meaning of mercy. If the prophet grieves the loss of a simple plant, how much more would the Lord be concerned for an entire city of people who stood on the brink of destruction (Jonah 4:10-11)? The Lord is deeply invested in the lives of each person he created and wants nothing more than to bring them back to himself.

Jonah’s story ends before we find out how he responded to God’s mercy or whether he learned his lesson. But we can learn, even if he didn’t. Because even if he said it as a complaint, Jonah got one thing right: God is gracious and merciful. His mercy extends beyond our narrow parameters. It reaches out beyond us and the people we’re comfortable with. It forgives even our enemies, even those who have hurt us or a loved one. God wants every human being to be united with him in love. And he proves it to us by all the times he reaches out to us in mercy—even if we’re in the belly of a great big fish!

“Loving God, I praise you for your overwhelming mercy!”

Jonah 4:1-11
Psalm 86:3-6, 9-10
Luke 11:1-4