The First Reading poses a puzzle that has bedeviled philosophers and theologians.
God commands Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh these words: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” Now, the people of that city believed that God’s words are true, and they repented. And God was pleased with them for believing his words and repenting.
But—God’s words seem to be false.
At any rate, forty days after Jonah’s telling the people God’s words, the city is still standing.
And so here is the puzzle: could God say words that are false, and could God be pleased with the people for believing a falsehood?
Philosophers and theologians have had a lot to say about this puzzle. But here is a simple thought.
When God’s words call you, God puts your life at a cross-road. You can ignore him and continue stubbornly with your old life, as if God didn’t really matter, or didn’t really care what you did, or maybe didn’t really exist at all. Or you can open yourself to God. You can respond to him with a willingness to trust and obey. But if you do this, you will be leaving your old life behind, for a new life that might well have been unimaginable to you beforehand. You won’t be who you were before. You will be a new person, in God and for him.
The people to whom Jonah was sent responded to God’s call in this second way. They believed God’s words and willed to be obedient to God, and that is why they repented their former ways. As a result, they became very different from the people they had been. The whole city became a very different city from the one it had been.
There are, then, two ways in which the Lord’s words to Nineveh can be true. It can be destroyed either because God demolishes the city or because the people cease to be the city that they were. Either way, the old Nineveh will no longer exist.
Therefore, God’s words to Nineveh were true. When the people responded to God’s words with trust and obedience, they ceased to be what they were—and the old Nineveh was destroyed.
God’s words are always true, and God is always true to his word.
Art by Martin Erspamer, OSB
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and
C). This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the
collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org