1st Week of Lent 2019 - Wednesday - Responding to the call to repentance

Through the weeks of Lent, the scripture readings on Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent are more penitential than the rest.

Our first reading, from the third chapter of Jonah contains one of the most dramatic responses to the call to repentance in the entire old testament—the entire a city of Nineveh—about 120,000 people—everyone, the nobility, the peasantry, even the cattle and sheep—all repented when God sent Jonah to preach to them.

When the Ninevites repented, they expressed their repentance by fasting, covering themselves with sackcloth, and sitting in ashes. But better yet, they had the highest form of repentance: they indicated their sorrow to God "by their actions how they turned from their evil ways."

The repentance and conversion of the Ninevites was truly miraculous: the Ninevites frequently brutalized and butchered their enemies. They were pagans, spiritually dead, the least likely to repent. Yet the prophetic word pierced their hearts, and they repented en masse. Jesus commended their repentance.

During lent we undertake the external practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to show our repentance, as signs of repentance, and to bring about that entire conversion which will have an effect on our behavior, attitudes, and choices.

In the Gospel, Jesus says, this generation is an evil generation.  Why?  Because it was so resistant to repentance.  It didn’t want conversion, it didn’t want to be open to God’s message as the Ninevites were, it wanted signs, it wanted a magic show, it wanted to be entertained.  Sounds familiar.

When people are in sin, especially family members, leading them them to repentance is not unkind or cruel. It is an act of love, because only in this way can they correct their lives and receive eternal life.

Next week, Wednesday evening, every parish in the diocese will have confessions from 5 to 8pm. If there is anyone in your life who has fallen away from the Church, please invite them to confession. Your invitation might be the prophetic gesture which leads them back to God. Show them the power of repentance, the joy that comes from encountering God’s mercy, of returning to Him with your whole heart, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For Holy Father, Pope Francis on this anniversary of his election to the Papacy, that he may continue to be a beacon of God’s mercy and love.

For the whole Christian people, that in this sacred Lenten season, they may be more abundantly nourished by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

For the whole world, that in lasting tranquility and peace our days may truly become the acceptable time of grace and salvation.

For sinners and those who neglect right religion, that in this time of reconciliation they may return wholeheartedly to Christ.

For ourselves, that God may at last stir up in our hearts aversion for our sins and conviction for the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.
Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.