Today,
Jesus wants to show us the merciful and compassionate heart of God in his
dealings with the Ninevites. Nineveh was a corrupt country whose conduct
displeased God. God sent Jonah to warn them of an impending doom in 40 days which
was to be a nemesis for their iniquities. The people of Nineveh were quickly able
to read the signs of the time when Jonah preached. They declared a national
mourning and fasting for their sins. They put up a genuine conversion and God
saw the content of their hearts and spared the land. This reminds us of God’s
promise that “if the people who bear my name humble themselves, and pray and
seek my presence and turn from their wicked ways, then I will listen from
heaven and forgive their sins and restore their country” (2Chr 7:14 NJB).
The
Ninevites were exact contrast of the Jews of Jesus’ time. This generation (the
Jews), according to Jesus, will stand condemned on the judgment day because greater
was their privilege and greater will their condemnation be. They kept looking
for signs and wonders without repenting from their sins. They could be likened
to many people of our own generation who roam about in search of signs and
wonders centers without repenting of their sins. The bible rightly says in
Proverbs 14:34 that “righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to
any people”. A broken contrite heart God does not reject, but a gullible
faithless heart he despises.
What
could have blinded the Jews who were contemporaries of Jesus from heeding to the
voice of the Messiah in their midst and repent from their sins? It is nothing
far from pride and abuse of God’s privilege. Could these attitudes be the root causes
of the errors of our modern world? There is no gainsaying the fact that human
pride and abuse of God’s privilege are the bane of our society staggering in
what I call “memory loss of God”, crippled by what Pope Benedict XVI calls
“dictatorship of relativism”, and ruined by the storm which Blessed Pope John
Paul II described as “culture of death”. Today, ours is the privilege of Lent.
Let us humble ourselves like the people of Nineveh and put up a genuine
conversion of heart. This and only this can guarantee our salvation and vindication
of our own generation.
