21 January 2018
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The prophet Jonah was sent to preach in Nineveh. “Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it” (Jon 3:3). And yet, at the preaching of one man, the whole city, with over 120,000 inhabitants, repented.
Although it was among the largest cities in the world at that time, today, Nineveh’s size seems quaint. Topeka, Kansas and Fargo, North Dakota have similar populations. But we must not let ourselves imagine that Jonah’s achievement was quaint. Consider it this way: without God’s help, the odds against Jonah’s mission were 120,000 to 1. His chances of winning were 0.000833%. Now, if Jonah were to be sent to New York City today, and New York City were to be just as sinful as Nineveh once was, then the odds against Jonah would be 8,500,000 to 1, so his chances of success would be 0.000012%.
If God can create a victory when the chances of winning are 0.000833%, don’t call it quaint, and don’t think God will be impotent when the chances are down to 0.000011%. Your mind, your emotions and your problems are far more complicated than quaint old Jonah could have imagined, yet the kingdom of God is very close to you, too, so repent and believe in the Gospel.