Today’s First Reading (Wednesday of 1st week of Lent): 【God sent Jonah to Nineveh to tell them that the city would be destroyed in 40 days (that is, there would be disaster) if they did not repent: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” The people listened and proclaimed a fast: “when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.” Putting on sackcloth is a sign of repentance. Even the king participated when the news came to him: “When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.” The king then ordered the whole city to participate in the fasting and repentance, even including the animals: “Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: ‘Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.’” Man’s actions and sinful life would affect the environment and even the animals. The understanding of the people at that time was that humans, animals and the land were intimately interlinked and connected and had a common destiny. So they would also consider the animals participating in the act of repentance: “Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand.” We of the 21st century may not act or express ourselves in the same way. But we need to rediscover the feeling and understanding of our intimate connection with humans as a community, with animals and with the land and act as one with a common destiny and as a community similar to that of a family. Because the people repented of their evil ways, they could avoid the disaster of having their city destroyed: “When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.” We now have a serious environmental crisis, and we must repent of our ways to avoid the environmental disaster that would occur if do not change our ways.】 (Book of Jonah 3:1-10) 2014-03-12 (Wednesday of 1st week of Lent)
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 18:12:42 +0000
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