Les Miserables

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challenges, Jonah, punish, questions, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Over 25 years ago now when I heard that there was a Broadway musical based on Les Miserables, the sweeping historical novel by Victor Hugo, I was nonplussed, to say the least. What happened to all the light and airy musicals of the earlier part of the 20th century? How could the epic novel be portrayed in just a night at the theater when it took forever to read – even in translation? And such a gloomy theme!

I was reminded of that feeling when I read today’s first lectionary reading – still about Jonah who never seemed likely to come to a happy ending. (JON 4: 1-11) After having been shipwrecked and saved from (or by?) the whale, but angry at God for not destroying the wicked folks in Nineveh, he built himself a hut in a shady place where God had even provided a gourd plant for him and sat down to see how God would finally punish the people of Nineveh. The next day, however, it seems that God was still trying to test Jonah’s mettle by sending a scorching wind and a worm to attack the plant. Jonah had had enough of trials and told God he would be better off dead. God keeps trying with Jonah who seems unable to let go of his personal distresses for the greater good so God finally goes direct saying the following.

“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?”

Unlike the play that comes to a glorious denouement, the book of Jonah ends with God’s question. I think it’s a genius move because it calls us to look at how we would respond to God in the same situation. What would you say? Would God’s challenging question wake you up? How would you feel? Don’t jump to a response; think about it. Even better: read the Book of Jonah. It’s very short and rather entertaining until the last paragraph. See what you learn from asking the deep questions that may arise from your reflections. Blessings on the search!

Two Choices

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avoidance, Blessed Mother, Jonah, Mary, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

If ever there was a “wild and crazy” juxtaposition in the Scripture readings from the U.S.Bishops’ Conference, it is today. To be honest, however, there are two different sets of readings: one from the “regular” lectionary calendar and one from the calendar of feasts. Today we honor the Blessed Mother Mary, mother of Jesus, as she is remembered in the prayer dedicated to her. It is the feast of the Most Holy Rosary. (Lots to learn on the internet about the provenance and development of that devotion.)

In the daily lectionary readings we have the very familiar story of Jonah and the whale (JON 1 &2) where Jonah tries everything to get out of completing the mission he has been given by God and ends up in the belly of the whale. It’s a cautionary tale, to be sure, and the moral is the futility of dismissing God’s uncomfortable directives. (To be fair to God, Jonah was saved by being harbored for a time in the belly of the whale and spewed out in the end after which he gave in to the mission he had been given…but that comes in a later chapter.)

The reading for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is the story in Luke’s gospel of the Annunciation of Mary’s call to be the mother of Jesus. There seems to be no hesitation in her affirmative response to this incredible message brought to her by an angel. (traditionally translated as: “Be it done unto me according to your word.”) The gospels are like shorthand, I think, and there are places where I would wish for a more complete description of the stated event. It seems unfair to have such a brief conversation (LK 1: 28-38) for such an important event. One translation (J.B. Phillips) that seems to speak more of who Mary is has always been my favorite. Mary says, “I belong to the Lord body and soul. Let it happen as you say.”

While Jonah was busy sleeping in the hold of a sinking ship, trying to avoid God, Mary was practicing the love that directed her entire young life and enabled a consistent response to something she didn’t really understand but was willing to trust. A telling juxtaposition…and something upon which to reflect when we are faced with a difficult assignment from God.

Saving the World

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Jonah, judge, message, Nineveh, prayer vigil, random acts of kindness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, warning

Two thoughts crossed my mind this morning as I was reading the account of Jonah’s second announcement from God (“post-whale,” JON 3: 1-10). First I mused on the fact that Nineveh was such a big city that it took three days to go through it. I wondered how long it would take now to traverse a place like New York City and whether the walk would include all five boroughs and maybe some further-out suburbs. Since Jonah was giving a warning about destruction of the city, it would seem that he would have needed to check in everywhere.

My following thought was more to the point and more complicated to consider. Actually, it became a whole rush of questions. I’ll use New York as an example because it is a big city but not to judge the population in any way. What if there was a clear message from God that the city and all its inhabitants were to be destroyed in 40 days unless everyone repented (honestly, not just mouthing the words) of all their sins. Maybe sackcloth and ashes wouldn’t do for evidence. Maybe it would need to be huge prayer vigils and “random acts of kindness” in addition to the fasting.

I hesitated to write that because it sounds – even in the face of my disclaimer above – that I am speaking of a vengeful God who punishes wrong with destruction. That’s not it at all. As a matter of fact, I’ve been seeing evidence of lovingkindness on the evening news lately which renews my hope. I’m speaking of a day when self-interest would be put aside in favor of unity and light.

Are we there yet? Could we do it city by city at least in our country? What about where you live? Would I be willing to propagate the message? First, I would need to believe in the possibility of success. Then I would need to gather people who believe we are capable of convincing others because of the sincerity and light coming from inside all the speakers. That’s just the beginning, I guess. Call me crazy, but who knows what could happen if we really decided for God and put our minds and the entire power of our loving hearts into it?

An Answer to Prayer

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change, Florida, gun reform, gun violence, Jonah, pray, teenagers, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, young voices

We all know the story of Jonah and the whale and probably the majority also know that Jonah took a second trip to Nineveh which was more successful. This morning’s first reading chronicles that part of the short book that tells of the response of the Ninevites to Jonah’s message of destruction, soon to fall on that wicked city. Surprisingly quick was the repentance of the entire populace – including the king of Nineveh who laid aside his robe, covered himself in sackcloth and sat in the ashes, after which he proclaimed a total fast for humans and animals. Who knows, he said, God may relent and forgive and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish. And that is exactly what happened.

Reading that, I began to think about the teenagers in Florida whose grief and anger over the deaths of their companions is fueling a very loud cry for change. For a long time groups have been calling for reform of gun laws and a return to the spirit of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution but the gun lobby has continued to win the argument. Is it possible that the hearts of the country may finally be moved to change by the rising of these young voices?

There’s more to Jonah’s story, but my hope for today lies in the above question about the possibility that lies in our younger generation. It is enough for today. With luck, Jonah may come back around at a later date. (If it piques your interest, read chapter 4 of the Book of Jonah. It’s only 3 paragraphs…) Let’s hear it for the young people and pray for the end of gun violence in this country and the world while asking ourselves what we are willing to sacrifice to make it happen.

 

 

 

 

 

God Calling

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calling, God, graciousness, Jonah, mercy, Nineveh, Noah, second chance, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom School

It has been raining all night. I was awake only twice – and briefly – but my wide-awake housemate affirmed that although some of the rain came more seriously and some was just drip-like, we are in for a full day of it in any case. No storm, I hope, as our Wisdom School ends today and some people have a long way to drive…

I could have expected that the first reading for this morning would serendipitously be about Noah building the ark or some such similar event. Well, not exactly…but it was the story of Jonah and his attempt to get away from God by going in the totally opposite direction from where God had directed him to go. Not only was he found out, but he was determined to be the cause a huge storm and of the eventual deaths of all the people on the ship he had boarded to escape God’s call to Nineveh. Thus, Jonah agreed to have himself thrown overboard, into the angry sea, to save everyone else. Of course, God saved him in the end (Praise God for that large fish!) Good news! Jonah fulfilled his mission of going to Nineveh where, surprisingly, the people repented and returned to God – at least for a hundred years or more.

The moral of this story, we might say, is : if God calls you to something specific you’d better listen and accept the challenge! Or we could look at it as God’s willingness to give us a second chance – in a big way! Commentaries focus on God’s mercy and graciousness…

Whatever aspect of the story catches our fancy, it is surely a great and “fanciful” story for a very rainy day.

Sackcloth and Ashes

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change of heart, clean heart, consciousness, conversion, fast, God, Jonah, Nineveh, psalm 51, renew, repentance, sackcloth, second axial age, steadfast spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, violence

Today’s first reading (JON 3:1-10) tells the story of the second time God told Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach repentance. This time he went. His message was that the city – so large that “it took three days to go through it” – was going to be destroyed because of the “evil way” and violence of the inhabitants. Jonah was persuasive in delivering God’s message; it only took one day for the people to really hear him and as the key to everything: “The people believed God.” So they all began to fast and everyone put on sackcloth. The king of Nineveh was himself the model for their repentance. He “rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in the ashes.” Here’s what he had proclaimed throughout Nineveh:

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.

The end of the story tells that God did, in fact, relent and did not destroy Nineveh. I had a moment of wondering, in the midst of visualizing the scene and hearing the din of all those people begging “loudly” for God’s forgiveness, if perhaps we should try a similar tactic to rid our world of the violence that seems to be escalating in amount and kind everywhere we see on the news. But, of course, God was perceived differently to the people then and life, it seems, was more primitive. We are supposed to be living in a time of evolution of consciousness, the so-called “second axial age” where we are called to understand that we live now with a sense that the survival of the earth and all her inhabitants is in our hands. God is certainly not absent from the picture but our actions would sometimes belie that fact. Unless God is at the center of it all, nothing works. But God is not the only responsible party; we must see ourselves as co-creators or we are doomed to blame God for our failure. That is a different concept from all the images of God that most of us grew up with but I have come to believe that this is the maturity of faith that is incumbent on us if we are to survive.

Perhaps this is the year that the magnitude of the task of “change of heart” is upon us; we can no longer go on the way we have been living. Real conversion (turning) calls for solidarity as well as individual determination. So let us look deeply to see what needs to change in ourselves and join with others to call loudly to God in the words of Psalm 51: A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. Perhaps God will answer and together we and God will make it happen.