The sign of Jonah

Monday,
October 16, 2017
28th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Rom 1:1-7
Gospel: Luke 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)
When people asked for signs from Jesus, he performed none. He instead offered to them Jonah as sufficient sign for them to believe and repent. They just had to reflect on what Jesus was doing vis-à-vis the life of Jonah, and that would have been enough for them to believe and repent. This they did not do. Instead, they kept asking for spectacular signs.
Let us revisit the life of Jonah and examine it in the light of the life of Jesus. Both Jesus and Jonah experienced “burial”. Jonah was buried, so to speak, inside the belly of a whale, while Jesus was buried in a cave. As burial is associated with death, Jonah’s stay in the belly of the whale and the stay of Jesus inside the tomb invite people to die to themselves. Both stand as signs of dying to self, which is another term for repentance.
Jonah’s experience of burial was associated with the sea while Jesus’ was associated with the ground. In Jonah’s case, the sea, taken in those times as symbol of uncertainty, underlines the fact that the reward of repentance as preached by Jonah was yet undefined. In the case of Jesus, the ground which stands for stability and firmness, underlines the certitude of resurrection that penitents stand to inherit if they persevere in a life of repentance.
The case of Jonah was inferior to the case of Jesus. Yet at the preaching of Jonah the people of Nineveh readily turned away from their sins. This rendered all the more glaring the indifference of the Jews who stubbornly rejected Jesus’ call to repentance. Now we understand why Jesus refused to perform more signs. He was the greater sign – greater than Jonah who was taken as an important sign by the people of Nineveh. But they never took Jesus seriously.
We too keep asking for spectacular signs. Is Jesus not enough? – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected].

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