There's Always a Second Chance

Ash Wednesday is something like New Year's – a time to take stock and make resolutions. A week into Lent we find the story of Jonah. I love this story, probably because I find a good bit of Jonah in me.

The selection in the reading begins, "The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time,” and we recall that Jonah really messed up his first chance. When he heard the Lord call him to call Nineveh to repentance he fled, only to be swallowed up by a big fish, then dumped up on the beach where the word of the Lord came to him again: Jonah's second chance! Having preached, Jonah sat himself down comfortably to watch the wrath of God descend upon the Ninevites. But lo! The people of Nineveh had heard the word, had repented and had done penance.

God "changed his mind” about what he had planned, and did not do it. And so the people of Nineveh were given a second chance.

This did not please Jonah at all. He complained to God. In his newfound righteousness, enjoying his own second chance, he wanted the others to get "what was coming to them.”

So many lessons! The first, the big one, is God's gracious mercy. When we see in ourselves the same old problems, we need to repent, and remember that God is abounding in steadfast love. We can rest in that love, while doing our best to show that same love to others. We can count on having a second chance – and a third and a fourth...There is the answer to all the commandments.

By Mary Buckley CSJ

Painting by James Tissot