Wednesday - March 09, 2022
“Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus — a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you.”
-- St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
TODAY'S READINGS
WEDNESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN LENT
Lectionary: 226
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.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (19b) A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Verse Before the Gospel
Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart
for I am gracious and merciful.
Gospel
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.”
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A broken, humbled heart,
O God, you will not scorn....
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me (Psalm 51).
We read in today's first scripture that the people of Nineveh took an honest look at their sinfulness and repented. But did they repent merely to avoid God's punishment? Or did they actually feel remorse?
When we seek forgiveness only because we feel guilty, we're repenting for selfish reasons. We're protecting ourselves from the punishment of God and the disapproval of others. The central focus of our repentance is ourselves.
On the other hand, when we feel remorse, it's because we care about our relationship with God and we care about those who've been affected by our sin. We're alarmed by the damage we've caused. What matters most to us is that others are hurting. We feel deep regret that someone is suffering because of what we've done.
In Nineveh, the king decreed that everyone should "turn from his evil way." He didn't say they should stop doing evil. Turning from evil means moving in a new direction: the direction of goodness and holiness. It means changing our way of handling situations. It means altering the way we treat others.
God appreciated the actions and the attitudes of the Ninevites when they turned from their evil doings. True remorse is an attitude that causes us to take action. True remorse motivates us to give love to others as expiation for the times we behaved unlovingly. True remorse makes us do good to those we've treated badly, because we want to provide healing where we've caused harm and division.
Being remorsefully alarmed at how we've hurt others requires both humility and self-confidence. Instead of self-protectively worrying about shame, we allow ourselves to feel the pain of what we have done to others, knowing that God cares about us even though we are sinners. This gives us the freedom to turn guilt into the joy of transformation and increased holiness. If we really do care about others, we feel good about being this humble.
True remorse does not come easy. We have to rely on God's help. Whenever we get in touch with the pain we've caused others, we should ask Jesus to multiply our concern for them. He will honor this prayer with great blessings. This is the "sign of Jonah" that Jesus refers to in today's Gospel reading. When we die in humility in the belly of our whale-like circumstances or on our cross of regret, God the Father resurrects us into a holier, healthier, more joy-filled life.
Today's Prayer
Lord, give me the grace to be alert to Your signals and Your voice. Do not let my heart to become hardened to the promptings of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.
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The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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