Jesus is calling us to repent and believe,

David, he confesses to the Lord: “Against you—you alone—

I have sinned and done this evil in your sight”

David is grieving his sin before his Maker.

Like David, we all have sinned.

Repentance is something God gives—

it is only possible because of His grace.

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Jonah 3:1-10

The word of the Lord

Came to Jonah a second time: "Go to Nineveh, the great city, and announce to them the message I give you."

In obedience to the word of the Lord, Jonah went to Nineveh. It was a very large city, and it took three days just to cross it.

So Jonah walked a single day's journey and began proclaiming, "Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed."

 

The people of the city believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least,

put on sackcloth. Upon hearing the news, the king of Nineveh got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes.

 

He issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh:

"By the decree of the king and his nobles, no people or beasts, herd or flock,

will taste anything; neither will they eat nor drink. But let people and beasts be covered with sackcloth.

 

Let everyone call aloud to God, turn from his evil ways and violence. Who knows? God may yet relent,

turn from his fierce anger and spare us."

 

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways,

he had compassion and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened upon them.

 

Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19 A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊      

Luke 11:29-32

As the crowd increased, Jesus spoke the following words: "People of the present time are troubled people.

They ask for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah.

As Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign for this generation.

The Queen of the South will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them,

for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and here, there is greater than Solomon.

The people of Nineveh will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them,

for Jonah's preaching made them turn from their sins, and here, there is greater than Jonah.

 

Gospel Reflection ：

"He is greater than Jonah and Solomon."

Nineveh was the largest city in the Assyrian Empire (modern-day Iraq), and for many centuries,

the largest city in the world. The Assyrians worshipped 2100 gods, all under the rule of the chief god Ashur.

And yet, when Jonah preached a message of repentance from the One Lord and God,

they did not reject him or ignore him, but immediately called a fast. In Babylon, in the time of the prophet Daniel,

the King had thrown Daniel's friends into the fiery furnace for not worshipping Babylon's gods.

 

Here, however, the Ninevites do not reject this foreigner, but respond to the call to conversion at once.

Jesus uses the Ninevites' repentance as one of the examples to contrast how pagans had responded to a servant of God,

and yet now God's own Chosen People were not responding to the message of repentance preached by Jesus,

and he is greater than Jonah and Solomon, for he is the suffering servant and God himself.

When we approach the Word of God and participate in the Eucharist,

it is Christ himself who is speaking to us, calling us to repentance. Do we respond?