+ What great readings we have today! The
first reading continues the classic story of Jonah – the fugitive – the
fugitive from doing what the Lord asked him to do – to be a forceful spokesman
and prophet of the way things must be so that peace can reign once again!
So Jonah hops a ship to flee
his destiny – but the Lord is in the sea – and he stirs up a great storm – and
the sailors onboard are frightened – it is so bad. They cry out to their gods
to save them – but nothing happens. So they cast lots to see who to blame for
the situation: and it falls to poor Jonah who is the last one onboard to want
to even be noticed.
“Who are you?” they asked him.
“Give your full credentials, including the identity of your god.” So, Jonah
tells them his “name, rank, and serial number”: “I am a Hebrew! I worship the
Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” Obviously, they were
not expecting such an answer from him, because they were struck with terror and
fear. Then they ask him what to do to make the sea calm. Jonah tells them to
throw him into the sea, which would “kill two proverbial birds with one stone.”
They would get their calm, and so would he, his fate would be entirely up to
God – and it just might mean his end.
They throw him, and the sea
calms, but then God has his way and sends a wale to swallow up Jonah to keep
him safe – and ready him for his next project of prophecy! God always wins,
sooner or later! More on this story later!
The gospel passage is another
classic: the story of the Good Samaritan – the one unlikely person, who was the
only one of the three who had a heart, who had some brains, and who wasn’t
“afraid of what the neighbors might say!” He takes care of the man, as a true
neighbor ought to do, and is set up as a model for us all. Jesus says: “Go, do
what this man did!”
The Samaritan somewhere along
the line learned the great lesson that what one does for another, for any and
all others, rebounds onto oneself. Karma it is also called. Do to others, and
the same will be done unto you. Don’t do to others, and you will not get
anything worthwhile for yourself. Pray for others first, and you will get what
you need, practically, without even asking for it.
Bottom line: we are called,
like Jeremiah and the Samaritan, to think first, always, and entirely about
others. WE DO NOT COUNT: except to be in right relation with others, with God,
and lastly with ourselves. This is just how it works: this dynamic is derived
by the very reality of the Blessed Trinity Who is perpetual “otherness” “gift”
“self-sacrifice” – for it is all self-redounding, in its outward motion!
It is in THIS WAY that we are
“created in God’s likeness”!
May our actions this day prove
we “get it” – that we are indeed “children of God” – and brothers and sisters
of one another and of the Lord Himself.
Amen.
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