God gives Jonah a task to go to get the Ninevites to convert from their immorality, a task that horrifies him. He despised the Ninevites who had conquered his people. He would have preferred to be a cheerleader on the sidelines as God destroyed the Ninevites than be the cause of their conversion. The story goes on as Jonah tries to escape God and his mission. No such luck! He then makes a half-hearted tour through Nineveh, announcing that if the people did not convert from their evil ways, God would destroy them.

From the king down, the people of Nineveh go into penance mode and repent of the evil they have done, and God spares them. Any regular missionary or evangelizer would rejoice at the outcome of his preaching. Not so Jonah, who bitterly sat under a tree, was sad that God had spared the people Jonah despised so much.

God made it very clear that he is a God of second chances, as is seen throughout the Scriptures when, time after time, his people set aside the Covenant that God had made with them. At times, they fell into idolatry and worshipped the gods of their neighbors, or they neglected to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner within their midst. At the same time, they were unfaithful; God remained faithful to them and forgave them repeatedly.

Many of us were raised in a Church that focused on punishment for our sins. We made novenas and wore scapulars to ensure that at the moment of our death, God would have to forgive us. The God revealed to us in the Scriptures always gives us a second, a third, a lifetime of chances and always welcomes us home.

Let Us Pray:

God of second chances, you have revealed that you are a God of mercy and love. That love for us was mediated most graciously through the life, message, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. May our celebration of each Eucharist fill us with an abundance of your grace so that we might be fully convinced of that love. Amen.