Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Wednesday 1st week of Lent
March 8, 2006
Wednesday 1st week of Lent - Yr II
JONAH 3:1-10
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: "Set out for the
great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell
you." So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD's
bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days
to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had
gone but a single day's walk announcing, "Forty days more and Nineveh
shall be destroyed," when the people of Nineveh believed God; they
proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne,
laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the
ashes. Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the
king and his nobles: "Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God;
every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in
hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing
wrath, so that we shall not perish." When God saw by their actions how
they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had
threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.
LUKE 11:29-32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
"This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign
will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign
to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the
judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this
generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater
than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with
this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they
repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here."
REFLECTION
It is always helpful if someone, especially a very close friend, would
come up to us and tell us that what we are doing is wrong. A friend
could have an opinion, which may be totally different from what we have
about how we are behaving and living our lives. They tend see things
differently; they see things that we ourselves sometimes do not see.
This would be similar to having a mirror placed in front of us; perhaps
we would be surprised to find out how wrong we have imagined things to
be. How can we reject what really appears before us?
God, in his mercy, acted as that close and loving friend who saw it
right to tell the Ninevites by sending Jonah. He did the same to the
Jews with Jesus as the sign. The Ninevites realized their evil ways and
repented while the Jews of Jesus' time responded with hardened hearts
to the message that was brought before them.
How often do we fall victim to our own whims and desires that our
actions and behavior would betray and trample what is just, right and
morally good? Pride, selfishness, greed, lust and a whole lot of sinful
tendencies blind us to the message of truth, which serves as a mirror
that reflects our fallen nature. Blaming temptation for our actions
will do no good. God expects us to overcome this struggle within
ourselves so that like his triumph on the cross, we may also be with
him in his victory.
On the other hand, if we were in the shoes of Jonah, would we have
behaved as he did? We also have tendencies to secure our own salvation
and ignore others'. We would have desired to see all the evil people
destroyed instantly. However, this is not God's way. He intended that
the death of his Son might bring life to all, so that all peoples may
be saved. Without love, we would never understand this. What if we are
on the other end of the judgment table, wouldn't we plead for life? It
is a good thing that we have a merciful God as our judge otherwise we
may have been destroyed long ago.
PRAYER REQUESTS
We pray ...
- for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the
unborn.
- for the personal intentions of Mike Torres.
- for the safe travel of Angelo.
- for the personal intentions and good health of Tisha, Dino and
Aidan.
- for the spiritual and physical healing of Beth.
- for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
- Prayer Intention: Janice L. Gotamco
- for world peace and reconciliation.
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our
prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.
Have a good day!
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� 2006 Daily-Homily
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