Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 8, 2025 - Wednesday in the 27th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jonah 4:1-11 and Luke 11:1-4]"You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?" [Jonah]
The story of Jonah the prophet has to be one of the most popular stories from the Old Testament after Noah and the Ark! It was certainly known in the time of Jesus who refers to Jonah directly three times: once as a prophetic sign to repent like the citizens of Nineveh [Matt. 12:38-41] and twice as a prophetic sign of his resurrection [Matt. 16:4 and Luke:11:29-32]. But there are other elements in the story that are worth attention.
First of all, there is Jonah's effort to run away from God's call to prophetic service which resulted in his being thrown overboard from the ship he got on to escape God and being swallowed by "a great fish." This escapade seemed to get his attention, to be sure! And second, Jonah might be the patron saint of those who sulk over minor matters in the face of larger troubles! I think it is fair to wonder if Jonah was really sulking over the gourd plant, or that he wanted to see Nineveh destroyed, but they repented! He is really the only prophet in the Old Testament who succeeded in getting a dramatic conversion, and he sulked when he succeeded!!!
We are all called to preach God's message. The results are going to vary. When we don't see the results we want, getting mad at God isn't very helpful. Jonah became a "sign" in spite of himself. AMEN