Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
(Jonah 3:1-10; Luke 11:29-32)
Historians label Jesus an “eschatological prophet.” They see
him, in worldly terms, as a religious scold warning others of the end of the
world. Certainly, Jesus preached
repentance. Much like Jonah in today’s
reading, he urged decisive change in how one lives to be saved from a dreadful end.
But the end of the world has not come after almost two thousand
years. Of course, there have been scenarios
of an end. Scientists and novelists tell
of a nuclear war; a swift-spreading, death-dealing pandemic; or a giant meteor
crash killing billions instantly and short-circuiting agriculture. Still humans have never united in common effort
to live righteously. How should these
facts be interpreted?
We should be thankful that the world has not approached an
end. When it happens, the panic will be unbearable. Nevertheless, people die all the time. In other words, we experience individual ends
some after eighty or ninety years, others much sooner like a boy recently shot
in the crossfire of a drug war. We need to prepare ourselves for this inevitable occurrence. Because we know that God is love, we should
begin to love as purely and completely as He.
When the time comes then, He will recognize us as His own.
