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Wednesday – Twenty-seventh Week – OT1
Readings: Jon 4:1-11; Lk 11:1-4.
Reading 1: Jon 4:1-11
Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh.
He prayed, “I beseech you, LORD, is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish. And now, LORD, please take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”
But the LORD asked, “Have you reason to be angry?”
Jonah then left the city for a place to the east of it, where he built himself a hut and waited under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city.
And when the LORD God provided a gourd plant that grew up over Jonah’s head,
giving shade that relieved him of any discomfort, Jonah was very happy over the plant. But the next morning at dawn God sent a worm that attacked the plant,
so that it withered. And when the sun arose, God sent a burning east wind;
and the sun beat upon Jonah’s head till he became faint.
Then Jonah asked for death, saying, “I would be better off dead than alive.”
But God said to Jonah, “Have you reason to be angry over the plant?”
“I have reason to be angry,” Jonah answered, ‘angry enough to die.”
Then the LORD said, “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?”
Gospel Lk 11:1-4
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom comes. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.”
I. THEME: Ask for right things in prayer.
Many Christians did not know how to pray. This is why God did not answer them, as St. James said: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (Jam 4:3).
Today readings remind people that they cannot be selfish to worry and to pray only for themselves, but they have to pay attention to God’s and other people’s needs. In the first reading, Jonah was angry with God because He did not destroy the Ninevites and He made a gourd plant that gave shade over Jonah’s head died. He asked God to take away his life. In the Gospel, Jesus taught his disciples the right way to pray. They have to pay attention first to God’s kingdom to come; then to ask for their individual needs.
II. ANALYSIS:
1/ Reading I: Jonah became angry with God, people, and a gourd plant.
1.1/ Jonah angered with God because He did not destroy the Ninevites: Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh. He prayed, “I beseech you, LORD, is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish. And now, LORD, please take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”
(1) Jonah thought he had a reason for angry because God was not on his side to destroy the enemies, Ninevites. God asked him a question in order for him to think: “Have you reason to be angry?” Jonah actually angered selfishly, unreasonably and blindly.
– Selfishly: He must understand that everybody are God’s children. He cannot love some and destroy some.
– Unreasonably: God sent so many prophets to the Israelites for their conversion. They did not listen, they also mocked and even killed some of them. Even Jonah disobeyed God by refusing to preach to the Ninevites the first time. In opposition to that, God had just sent to the Ninevites only Jonah, and he only preached once, the whole gentile city listened, believed, and repented with their whole heart. Why did Jonah want God to destroy them? Did Jonah wanted to have an unjust God, or to make Him as a weapon to be used?
– Blindly: Jonah asked God to take away his life! Jonah’s life is as important as others’ life. If God took away his life as he asked, the one who suffers is Jonah, not God.
(2) Jonah was angry because the death of a gourd plant: Jonah then left the city for a place to the east of it, where he built himself a hut and waited under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city. And when the LORD God provided a gourd plant that grew up over Jonah’s head, giving shade that relieved him of any discomfort, Jonah was very happy over the plant. But the next morning at dawn God sent a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. And when the sun arose, God sent a burning east wind; and the sun beat upon Jonah’s head till he became faint. Then Jonah asked for death, saying, “I would be better off dead than alive.” But God said to Jonah, “Have you reason to be angry over the plant?”
1.2/ The reason why God had compassion for the Ninevites: To help Jonah come to his sense, God asked him to make a comparison: “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.” Jonah loved a gourd plan more than human lives, a plant which had no relation to Jonah. He loved it just because it gave him shade to avoid the sun’s heat.
God also wanted Jonah to recognize his selfishness and unreasoning when He told him: In the Nineveh, there are more than 120,000 God’s children and many animals which are God’s crearures. Many of them cannot distinguish their right hand from their left. This sentence means they did not know what is the right thing to do. Jonah has no reason to ask Him to kill all of them.
2/ Gospel: We must pray so that we should do God’s will.
2.1/ Not everyone knows how to pray: According to Jewish tradition, many Rabbis teach their disciples a simple prayer so that they can use to pray daily. John the Baptist also did as such to his disciples. In today Gospel report, one of Jesus’ disciples also came to ask him that: “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” The reason why they are needed to be taught is because they don’t know how to pray: pray for everything, pray the thing that hurt others, pray only for themselves…
2.2/ Jesus taught his disciples how to pray: “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.” Observing Jesus’ teaching, we recognized some important points as follows:
(1) What are related to God must be asked first: Above all, a prayer is offered to God who is the Father of all; He always loves and cares for the needs of His children. All that belong to God must be asked before human and individual needs. In the Our Father of Matthew, we must pray for God’s name to be glorified, not ours; for God’s kingdom to come, not our kingdom coming before God. Praying but also recognizing the duty of a son are to glorify his Father’s name and to make His kingdom come by his works and way of life – so that everyone can see and glorify his Father in heaven.
(2) What are related to men: These include past, present, and future.
– Present: “Give us each day our daily bread.” We ask God for “our daily bread;” we don’t ask Him bread for our whole life.
– Past: “Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.” We cannot ask God to destroy our enemies as Jonah did; but to bring them to repentance so that they might live.
– Future: “Do not subject us to the final test.” We cannot avoid temptations of sin because they are needed for our growth; but we ask God for strength to overcome temptations.
III. APPLICATION IN LIFE:
– We cannot ask God to do our will; but we must do God’s will, because our will are often near-sighted, selfish, and blind.
– We must ascertain that all people are God’s children, either they know or not. Our duty is to co-operate with God to bring salvation to all through the preaching of Good News.