The sign of Jonah

Monday, October 10, 201628th Week in Ordinary Time First Reading: Gal 4: 22-24. 26-27. 31 – 5: 1 Gospel Reading: Lk 11:29-32 As the crowd increased, Jesus began to speak in this way, “People of the present time are evil people. They ask for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. As Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign for this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and here there is greater than Solomon. The people of Nineveh will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for Jonah’s preaching made them turn from their sins, and here there is greater than Jonah.” D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE (Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience) Both Jesus and Jonah were signs to their own generations. Jonah’s stay in the belly of a whale for three days paralleled with Jesus’ three-day stay in the grave. Both were signs pointing to the need to repent. The parallelism diverged in the response they got from the public. The people of Nineveh responded to Jonah positively by wearing sackcloth and putting ashes on their heads. The Jews, on the other hand responded to Jesus with persistent unbelief. Jesus called his generation an evil generation for rejecting the gift of salvation. If evil is basically any act of wasting God’s grace, then what the Jews of Jesus’ time did was no ordinary evil act since it was the Father’s gift of his only Son that they refused to accept. God gave his only Son so that all might partake of eternal life (John 3:16). He came to his own creation but his own did not accept him (John 1:11). We too have wasted God’s grace in the way we disregard the Sacraments. If we really appreciate God’s company why are our adoration chapels deserted? If we long for God’s forgiveness, why are our confessionals empty? If we treasure God’s commandments, why do many people postpone getting married in Church until they have the money to throw a banquet at expensive hotels? If we value all the Sacraments as channels of God’s grace, why aren’t families encouraging the best of their sons to be priests so that God’s vineyard won’t run out of laborers to bring the Sacraments to God’s flock? The parallelism between the signs of Jesus and Jonah diverged in the response of the people. If a parallelism will be made between the response of the Jews to Jesus and our response to God’s marvelous interventions in our lives, would there be any divergence at all? – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: [email protected]. May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya? I-type ang BANDERA  REACT at i-send sa 4467.