Lent is a season of fasting and abstinence, but Lent is more than about substituting bacon for salmon. For a Lenten meditation, let’s take a look at the Book of Jonah – it’s a 20-minute read of four chapters, but a life-changer for Jonah and for us!
In this thrilling story from the Old Testament, the Lord came to Jonah and told him to go to the great city of Nineveh and preach repentance. If the people did not turn from their wickedness, God would destroy their city, He said. Unlike Samuel who proclaimed, “Lord, your servant is listening,” Jonah turned a deaf ear. Instead of doing as God instructed and heading east to Nineveh, Jonah sailed west to a land called Tarshish, considered the last stop before falling off the face of the earth.
While at sea, the wind blew up and the tempest surged. The pagan sailors lightened the boat by throwing cargo overboard, then started praying to their gods. But the storm raged on.
Meanwhile, Jonah was snoring away inside the boat. The captain woke him and the sailors found out he was a Hebrew who worshiped the Lord, the creator of land and sea. So they asked Jonah to pray to his God, but still nothing happened. Finally, the sailors cast lots to see who was the unlucky person responsible for the storm besieging them. Lo and behold, the mayhem fell on Jonah. Jonah confessed that he was running away from God, and told the men to throw him into the sea.
The pagans hesitated, but the storm kept pushing their boat away from the land. Seeing no other alternative, “then they cried to the Lord: “Please, O Lord, do not let us perish for taking this man’s life; do not charge us with shedding innocent blood, for you, Lord, have accomplished what you desired.” The men threw Jonah into the sea, and the storm immediately stopped. Of course, we then read that Jonah was swallowed by a whale and taken back to Ninevah to do as God commanded him, and he proved successful in his mission. The people of Nineveh repented and the city was saved.
When will we realize that there is no escaping from God, God’s will, God’s plan for our lives, and God’s judgment? As the Psalmist David said in Psalm 139, “Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, there you are.”
Stormy weather is also a familiar narrative in the New Testament, when Jesus calms the wind and the sea. And Jonah’s experience of being in the belly of a whale for three days is considered a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.
Just like Jonah, sometimes God has to constrain us by trials and tribulations to make us realize that we are His children. We have a calling and a duty as
His children, so we must be obedient when He speaks.
In the belly of that whale, Jonah, thinking he was dead, fervently prayed a prayer that you and I should pray especially considering we are swallowed up by the culture of death, which is drowning us in fear. The secular world wants us to neglect living the mission of our Catholic faith as sons and daughters of the Living God and instead give in to their evil dominion.
I emphasize this part of Jonah’s plea, desiring to bring us to repentance, rekindling our commitment and devotion to God: “When I became faint, I remembered the Lord; My prayer came to you in your holy temple. Those who worship worthless idols abandon their hope for mercy. But I, with thankful voice, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will pay: deliverance is from the Lord.”
This Lenten season, may the Lord purge us of our sins of disobedience, as we renew our baptismal promises renouncing Satan and his works and we promise to serve God in the holy Catholic Church.
Bobby Speers is an author who lives in Hickory.