Wednesday 1st week of Lent, 25th February 2015
“The crowds got even bigger and he addressed them, ’This is an evil generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonas.For just as Jonas became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be a sign to this generation.” Today Jesus indicates to us that the sign he will give to this “bad generation” is himself, as the “sign of Jonas.” Just as Jonas threw himself overboard to calm the storm and to save the sailors’ lives, so Jesus let himself be crucified to calm the tempest of sin and give us back our life with our identity as children of God. As Jonas dwelt three days in the whale’s stomach, so Jesus dwelt three days in the stomach of the earth before walking out of the empty tomb, risen from the dead. The sign that Jesus will give to the "bad” of each generation is the sign of his death and resurrection. His death, freely accepted, is the sign of God’s unbelievable love for us : Jesus gives his life in order to save our own. His Resurrection from the dead is the sign of the Power of God’s Infinite Love. It is the most powerful and moving sign that has ever been given and we need to be renewed in this Paschal Mystery! At Easter, may we be found already Risen from the dead, crying out to God with all our faith!
“On Judgement Day, the Queen of the South will stand up against the people of this generation and be their condemnation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the Wisdom of Solomon, and look, there is something greater than Solomon here.” If conversion is a personal wisdom, it is also wisdom for the community. Saint John Chrysostom writes in the person of Christ : ’ ’But I am the
Master; and he has been spit out from the whale, but I am Risen from the dead, and he proclaimed destruction, but I came to proclaim the Good News and the Kingdom. “The Word of God is our Wisdom.It renews us as it renews the life of our communities, but we need to believe this all together! Lent is given to us so that we open up our hearts to the Paschal Mystery, letting ourselves be taken down into the Life of Jesus, His Passion and Resurrection. Man needs a surplus of humanity ,for there are so many people living an empty life!”Make us come back and we shall be saved! “On Judgement Day the men of Nineveh will appear against this generation and be its condemnation, because when Jonas preached, they repented; and look, there is something greater than Jonas here.“Once again, Jesus is the sign of Jonas, who is an icon of Jesus and an agent of repentance. In his predication “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed”the pagan Ninevites decide to fast and repent, for everybody, from the king to children and even animals were dressed in jute and were covered in ashes. During these forty days of Lent, we have someone greater than Jonas, who preaches our conversion : it is Jesus Himself and so our conversion ought to be even more loving. Jesus Himself is the Sign! He came, he loved the world, he
suffered for it, for each one of us! He gave his life so that the world may have Life. We believe that Jesus transforms us in His Eucharist that we receive, the Bread of Life! Humanity is”empty“of God as it is empty of itself. Jesus, in giving us the Bread of Life and said to us “Take and eat, this is my Body!”Taking the Cup he said: “Take and drink, this is my Blood!”We receive this New Life to live humbly at the service of one another. It is the act of faith that proclaims that God is “with us” for the renewal of the world.