The Sign of Jonah: Will You Repent and Believe? - Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

As we began our Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday, in receiving blessed ashes on our foreheads, we heard these words, “Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris. - Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:19). If not, we heard these words, Paenitemini, et credite Evangelio. - Repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark 1:15).

Being a full week from Ash Wednesday, the Readings of Wednesday of the First Week of Lent (Jonah 3:1-10; Luke 11:29-32) take us back to these words of Jesus:

Paenitemini, et credite Evangelio. - Repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark 1:15).

We have reflected our need to repent and believe in the Gospel, when receiving ashes on the first day of Lent and in the Gospel Reading of the First Sunday of Lent (Cycle B) (Mark 1:12-15).

The scripture readings of Wednesday of the First Week of Lent (Jonah 3:1-10; Luke11:29-32) draw a contrast between those who actually repent and those who do not in response to a call for repent and believe.

In the First Reading (Jonah 3:1-10), we see how the Ninevites, from the top to the bottom, from king to beasts, repented their sins and mourned a loss of their innocence, and believed in God, as a result of prophet Jonah announced God’s judgement on Nineveh for their sins. On the other hand, in the Gospel Reading (Luke 11:29-32), Jesus lamented the unrepentance of the people of his generation, though he had been calling to repent and believe in his Gospel, and refused to give them a sign to make them believe, except for a sign of Jonah.

Jesus referred his death and resurrection as the sign of Jonah and described himself as something greater than Jonah.  He was, indeed, the sign of Jonah to his generation.

Furthermore, Jesus, as the sign of Jonah, spoke of the Judgement on his generation, as Jonah warned God’s judgement on the Nineveh. And he said that his unrepentant generation would be rebuked by the queen of the south, who came to hear God-given wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 10:1-9), and also by Jonah, who went to Nineveh and prompted the Ninevites’ conversion (Jonah 3:1-10).

Indeed, the sign of Jonah at its best is the risen Jesus. How many of those who do repent and believe would come to repent and believe, upon Jesus' death and resurrection?

It has been a week since Ash Wednesday. You have heard a call to repent and believe in the Gospel. Whine one are you like, the Ninevites who repented and believed, the queen of the south, who sought wisdom from Solomon, of the generation that Jesus lamented for their unwillingness to repent and convert?