20200304
CONNECTING
THE DOTS
04 March, 2020,
Wednesday, 1st Week of Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Jonah 3:1-10 ©
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The Ninevites repent, and God spares them
The word of the
Lord was addressed to Jonah: ‘Up!’ he said ‘Go to Nineveh, the great city, and
preach to them as I told you to.’ Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in
obedience to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare:
it took three days to cross it. Jonah went on into the city, making a day’s
journey. He preached in these words, ‘Only forty days more and Nineveh is going
to be destroyed.’ And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a
fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. The news reached the
king of Nineveh, who rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth
and sat down in ashes. A proclamation was then promulgated throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his ministers, as follows: ‘Men and beasts, herds and
flocks, are to taste nothing; they must not eat, they must not drink water. All
are to put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone
renounce his evil behaviour and the wicked things he has done. Who knows if God
will not change his mind and relent, if he will not renounce his burning wrath,
so that we do not perish?’ God saw their efforts to renounce their evil
behaviour, and God relented: he did not inflict on them the disaster which he
had threatened.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 50(51):3-4,12-13,18-19 ©
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A
humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.
Have
mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In
your compassion blot out my offence.
O
wash me more and more from my guilt
and
cleanse me from my sin.
A
humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.
A
pure heart create for me, O God,
put
a steadfast spirit within me.
Do
not cast me away from your presence,
nor
deprive me of your holy spirit.
A
humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.
For
in sacrifice you take no delight,
burnt
offering from me you would refuse,
my
sacrifice, a contrite spirit.
A
humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.
A
humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Ezk33:11
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Glory
and praise to you, O Christ!
I
take pleasure, not in the death of a wicked man
– it
is the Lord who speaks –
but
in the turning back of a wicked man
who
changes his ways to win life.
Glory
and praise to you, O Christ!
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Or:
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Joel2:12-13
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Glory
and praise to you, O Christ!
Now,
now – it is the Lord who speaks –
come
back to me with all your heart,
for I
am all tenderness and compassion.
Glory
and praise to you, O Christ!
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Gospel
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Luke 11:29-32 ©
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As Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be
a sign
The crowds got
even bigger, and Jesus addressed them:
‘This
is a wicked generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given
is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will
the Son of Man be to this generation. On Judgement day the Queen of the South
will rise up with the men of this generation and 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. On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will
stand up with this generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they
repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.’
CONNECTING THE
DOTS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Jonah 3:1-10; Ps 51:3-4,12-13,18-19; Luke 11:29-32 ]
How can we connect the dots in life? The difficulty, as Steve Jobs said is,
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking
backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your
future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma,
whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the
difference in my life.” This was what the people of Nineveh did.
They took courage and made a decision to change their lives based on their gut
feeling that what the Prophet Jonah prophesied was true. They heard the
message and exhortation of Jonah. “‘Only forty days more and Nineveh is
going to be destroyed.’ And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they
proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. The
news reached the king of Nineveh, who rose from his throne, took off his robe,
put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes.”
But the people did more than just fast and
put on sackcloth. They renounced their evil ways. “Men and beasts, herds
and flocks, are to taste nothing; they must not eat, they must not drink water.
All are to put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let
everyone renounce his evil behaviour and the wicked things he has
done.” They turned from their evil and wicked ways. They came
to realize the dots connect their evil ways with the foretold disasters.
Indeed, most of our sufferings in life are very much connected with the
decisions we made yesterday, whether for ourselves or for others.
Unfortunately, many of us do not have the foresight to see how the dots are
connected.
The reality of life is that we reap what
we sow. This was what St
Paul wrote, “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you
sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the
flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the
Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap
at harvest time, if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:7-9) Most of us suffer the
consequences of bad decisions either taken by us personally or by those who are
in charge of us, be they our loved ones, superiors or the government. God
warned Moses that our sins would impact those who come after them. “I
the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the
iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject
me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those
who love me and keep my commandments.” (Ex 20:5f)
Alas, the world today suffers from pride
and ignorance. We are just like the crowds during the time of Jesus. They were reprimanded because they
lacked faith in spite of their seeing all the miracles Jesus had done and heard
His preaching. Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation; it is asking for
a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah
became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this
generation.” Skepticism and disbelief is the cause of
ignorance. Proud people who think highly of themselves and believing that
they have all the answers through their ingenuity will discover their ignorance
only from hindsight when they see the bad consequences of their decisions.
However, the world refuses to recognize
the errors it is spreading. They
already made a mistake in population control because now the world is becoming
depopulated. They made the mistake of granting easy divorce, contraception
and abortion. This resulted in the weakening of marriages and family
life. Our children are dysfunctional and lacking holistic
upbringing. The world thinks that God is the obstacle to growth and
progress. Yet progress in technology has resulted in the dehumanizing of
humanity, reducing it to one that is lacking in conscience, integrity and
morality. The world thinks that secularism is the way to unity in the
world. What we see now is greater division because of relativism and the
lack of virtuous living and vices thriving today.
Indeed, if world leaders do not take
cognizance of the disastrous consequences of their pragmatic decisions, simply desiring to fulfil the immediate
needs of our people today without any serious thought for tomorrow, our
families and faith and our planet will be destroyed because of the selfishness
of man. Without any hope for tomorrow for a life after death, the
motivation to do good or live a virtuous life would be lost. Without a
strong morality, distinguishing between what is right and wrong, truth and
falsehood, it would be very difficult to unite people in love and truth.
In contrast, we see the foresight of the
Queen of the South and the people of Nineveh. Unlike the people during the time of
Jesus, the Queen of the South recognized Solomon as someone who was wise and
hence, “she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of
Solomon.” She travelled from afar just to meet Solomon. Jesus
remarked, “On Judgement day the Queen of the South will rise up with the men of
this generation and condemn them, because there is something greater than
Solomon here.” Jesus is greater than any other prophet or wise king
because He is the Word of God in person. Unfortunately, like the people
during the time of Jesus, we continue to reject Jesus as our prophet
today. “On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this
generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they repented; and there
is something greater than Jonah here.”
What we need today is really the gift of
humility. For conversion to
take place, we need to cooperate with His grace. In truth, grace is never
lacking for our salvation. But God does not impose His grace on us. It
must be received freely. Our free will determines whether we are ready to
accept His grace. Of course, our free will could also be impacted by the
circumstances and culture we are in. This is why, in a secular and
relativistic culture, the world finds it more difficult to encounter God.
When we have been conditioned to believe that God does not exist and religion
is merely superstition, we can be inhibited from responding to the grace of
conversion. But even within such circumstances as in the case of the
Queen of the South and the Ninevites who did not know the God of Israel, they
were able to receive the grace of God through the messengers God sent to
them. What matters at the end of the day is that we respond to the
message of repentance. This is within our capacity.
But the reality is that we are not humble
enough to accept the call to conversion. We find excuses to reject the Word of God
like the people. Jesus had already shown Himself to be the messenger of
God through His many healing miracles and exorcisms. In His preaching, He
taught them about the love of God. Yet, these remained unconvinced and
audaciously asked for another sign. So the real problem is not that they
did not have enough signs but that they had hearts that resisted the will of
God. When we keep looking for signs it is because we are not willing to
face the truth about ourselves. If they were open, they would have seen
the truth of what Jesus said and did. Hence, no signs will suffice their
hardened hearts. This was what the Lord said, “This is a wicked generation;
it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah.”
For us, we already have seen the
dots. We have seen how Jesus was put to death and raised to life, thereby
establishing Him as Lord. If
we are receptive to His grace, then like the people of Nineveh and the Queen of
the South, we should be ready to acknowledge our sins and ask for forgiveness. We
must be humble to renounce our sinful ways like the King of Nineveh, who turned
his evil way of life around when he heard of the impending disasters. As
King, he led the people to repentance. So, too, the Queen from the
South. As leaders, we must lead our people to walk in the way of truth
and love. We must repent from our pride and ego. Instead, we must
be ready to listen to Christ and His Church. Only when leaders live a
life of integrity and selfless service, will society learn how to
imitate. Unfortunately, today some leaders serve themselves first.
We must lead the way to true repentance and a change of life. Repentance
means to accept Jesus as the Wisdom of God and follow Him. We pray for a
humble and contrite heart as the psalmist invites us to have.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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