Dear Parish Family,

It is probably best to begin with the beginning of Jonah’s story (Jonah, 1:1), which is several chapters earlier than our present reading. The word of the Lord came to Jonah with the command to preach against the wickedness of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Kingdom. However, Jonah chose to flee from the presence of the Lord instead. In his flight, Jonah left his home of Gath-hepher, near Nazareth in Israel (2 Kings 14:25), and traveled to Joppa a coastal city. There he boarded a ship bound for Tarshish, a city near Gibraltar in the southern part of Spain.

The contrast between Nineveh and Tarshish was vast. Nineveh was located east of the Tigris River in modern-day Iraq. It was more than 500 miles east of Jonah’s hometown. Tarshish, in contrast, was west of Gath-hepher. In fact, Tarshish stood more than 2,500 miles from Israel in the opposite direction of Nineveh. It was the most remote destination available to Jonah. Jonah was trying to put as much distance as he could between himself and the Assyrians. Whatever happened to Nineveh, Jonah would not be there to see it.

So God sends a terrible storm. Jonah admits to the crew that he is fleeing God. He says, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea and then the sea will calm down for you, for I know that this great storm has come upon you because of me.” When nothing else works, with great reluctance, they toss him overboard. The sea turns quiet. Jonah in turn is swallowed by a “large fish,” usually referred to in tradition as a whale. Residence there, in the belly of the fish, gives Jonah plenty of time for retrospection. He prays a psalm-like prayer about what he has done. God hears him and saves him and tells him a second time to go to the great and sinful city of Nineveh to announce the Lord’s message. Jonah submits at last and in today’s First Reading the whole city is converted. At the end of his story, Jonah specifies his reason for resistance: “That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2). In other words, Jonah wanted Nineveh to be destroyed. He felt they deserved God’s judgment. Jonah didn’t want to see God’s mercy extended to his enemies, and he knew in his heart that God’s intention was to show mercy. Jonah discovered that God’s salvation is available to all who repent, not just to the people of Jonah’s choosing.

Jonah also discovered that no one can run from God. “‘Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:24). Jonah’s ill-advised attempt to escape from God was doomed to fail. He soon realized God was with him everywhere he went. Even in the stomach of the great fish, God knew where Jonah was and could hear his prayer (Jonah 2:2).

As for the apostles in the Gospel of today, they didn’t run away at all. They followed Jesus almost blindly. Possibly they wanted political action. With Jesus’ gentle guidance they found out gradually what following the Messiah really meant. Whereas Jonah had imagined the worst and run away, the apostles imagined the best and ran to follow Jesus. As it happened, they ran into the worst: the passion and crucifixion. Lucky for us all, the resurrection followed since suffering seems to be inevitable in human life, and here was an answer.

Are you running away, like Jonah, or running, like the apostles, toward Jesus? Either way you will surely have suffering. But God will keep after you, pulling you out from fishy environments, pushing you, over and over, asking you to learn, in your obedience, what love is really about.

Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.