Monday of 28th week, uneven numbered year
“While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, ’This generation is an evil generation ; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”
Jonas announces the mystery of Jesus by his burial! At the most sorrowful point of his Passion Jesus offered himself up in ’an Eternal Sprit." Jesus, who suffered for some time is from this moment on in Love’s power : the Lord of lords. Jesus indicates that the sign he will give to the ’bad generation’ is himself, like the ’sign of Jonas.’ In the same way Jonas let himself be thrown overboard, in order to calm the storm and save sailors’ lives, Jesus too let himself be thrown overboard to calm the storms of sin that threaten our lives.And as Jonas lived for three days in the belly of a whale before being spat out then onto the shore, Jesus too lived in the belly of the earth before walking out of the empty tomb. It is in the Eucharist that we come and draw on this Love. Now, at the heart our daily combat we offer ourselves up in the same Holy Spirit in order to obtain Strength and Light from Jesus. In the gift of his Body and Blood we find Life. It is the victory of Jesus’ Infinite Love that triumphs over all hatred and over all violence. We announce this victory of love lived in each one of us and which shines forth.
’Just as Jonas became a sign tot he Ninevires, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgement th queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear trhe wisdom of Solomon here."
The Wisdom of Jesus,the victory of his Love shines forth in the Christian community! The sign of Jesus’ victory of love is announced to the world. The sign that Jesus is going to give to the ’bad one’ of each generation is the sign of his death and resurrection. His death, freely accepted, is the sign of the amazing love of God for us : Jesus gives his life to save our own. His resurrection among the dead is the sign of his divine power. It is the most powerful and moving sign ever given. But Jesus is again the sign of Jonas in another sense. Jonas was an icon and an agent of conversion. In his teaching, ’In forty years Ninevah wil be destroyed’ the pagan Ninevites decide to fast and to repent, for everybody, from the king to the children and animals were
covered with sack clothes and ashes. We have someone ’much greater than Jonas.’ who preaches our conversion, it is Jesus Himself, a conversion that should be just as conscientiousness. This Good News must first and foremost work in our hearts, take hold of our lives. It is by our life that we announce the Good News. The Word of God says all the Love God has for us, this Love manifested in Jesus Christ. The ordeal of ’this generation ’is still the same one today. In a world that is hostile or indifferent to a religious spirit ,we want to offer the Transparence of Jesus’ Face that shines forth on our own!
“At the judgement the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonas they repented, and there is something greater than Jonas here.”
“For Jonas was a servant’, says John of Chrystostome in the Person of Christ, ’but I am the Master ; and he was spat out by the whale, but I am Risen from the dead; and he proclaimed destruction, but I have come preaching the Good News and the Kingdom.” The question for us is to respond with a deep conversion like the Ninevites and to embrace the Gospel. Not only have we recognised this Salvation and Wisdom Jesus has brought to us, but we want to tell humanity about this Salvation and Wisdom. We become the sign of a “generation” that is pleasing to God. Through baptism we have become a people of priests, prophets and kings. This witness of faith is the challenge to face for each generation. In the love we bear for one another, we ask that our faith is intensified, that our hope grows and especially that our love takes up the whole space in our hearts. When the ’beloved’ of Jesus come together in the Life of the Holy Spirit, a new face is given to humanity.
We ask for the grace of the Gift of the Holy Spirit in order to live from the Love of the Holy Spirit spread forth in our hearts.