The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today offer the Lord’s Prayer to begin our resolution, like Jonah, of the mercy and love of God that is offered to all people even those we experience as enemies of our life and liberty.
https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/INTERACTIVE-GAZA-ISRAEL-OCT9-2023-1696836729.png?w=770&quality=80In the reading from the Book of Jonah, he expresses anger and Jonah Is reproved.
* [4:1] He became angry: because of his narrow vindictiveness, Jonah did not wish the Lord to forgive the Ninevites.
* [4:2] Punishment: lit., “evil”; see 1:2, 7, 8; 3:8, 10; 4:1.
* [4:4] The Lord’s question is as unexpected as it is pithy. It is also a mysterious reply to Jonah’s wish to die; perhaps it serves to invite Jonah to think over his situation. However, it goes unanswered, and the request and reply will be repeated in vv. 8–9.
* [4:5] Waited: Jonah still hopes his threat of doom will be fulfilled.
* [4:6] Gourd plant: the Hebrew word, qiqayon, means here a wide-leafed plant of the cucumber or castor-bean variety.
* [4:10] Concerned: the meaning of the Hebrew verb suggests “pity, care for,” and this appears in the Lord’s attitude to Nineveh in v. 11. Jonah has shown only a selfish concern over the plant in contrast to the Lord’s true “concern” for his creatures.
* [4:11] A selfish Jonah bemoans his personal loss of a gourd plant for shade without any concern over the threat of loss of life to the Ninevites through the destruction of their city. If a solicitous God provided the plant for a prophet without the latter’s effort or merit, how much more is God disposed to show love and mercy toward all people, Jew and Gentile, when they repent of their sins and implore divine pardon. God’s care goes beyond human beings to all creation, as in Job 38. (Jonah, CHAPTER 4 | USCCB, n.d.)
Psalm 86 is a supplication for Help against Enemies
* [Psalm 86] An individual lament. The psalmist, “poor and oppressed” (Ps 86:1), “devoted” (Ps 86:2), “your servant” (Ps 86:2, 4, 16), “rescued…from the depths of Sheol” (Ps 86:13), attacked by the ruthless (Ps 86:14), desires only God’s protection (Ps 86:1–7, 11–17). (Psalms, PSALM 86 | USCCB, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus shares the Lord’s Prayer.
* [11:1–4] The Matthean form of the “Our Father” occurs in the “Sermon on the Mount” (Mt 6:9–15); the shorter Lucan version is presented while Jesus is at prayer (see note on Lk 3:21) and his disciples ask him to teach them to pray just as John taught his disciples to pray. In answer to their question, Jesus presents them with an example of a Christian communal prayer that stresses the fatherhood of God and acknowledges him as the one to whom the Christian disciple owes daily sustenance (Lk 11:3), forgiveness (Lk 11:4), and deliverance from the final trial (Lk 11:4). See also notes on Mt 6:9–13.
* [11:2] Your kingdom come: in place of this petition, some early church Fathers record: “May your holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us,” a petition that may reflect the use of the “Our Father” in a baptismal liturgy.
* [11:3–4] Daily bread: see note on Mt 6:11. The final test: see note on Mt 6:13. (Luke, CHAPTER 11 | USCCB, n.d.)
The Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries for October 11, 2023 had some technical difficulties at time of publication.
Don Schwager quotes “The privilege and responsibility of calling God Father,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"For the Savior said, 'When you pray, say, 'Our Father.' And another of the holy Evangelists adds, 'who art in heaven' (Matthew 6:9)... He gives his own glory to us. He raises slaves to the dignity of freedom. He crowns the human condition with such honor as surpasses the power of nature. He brings to pass what was spoken of old by the voice of the psalmist: 'I said, you are gods, and all of you children of the Most High' (Psalm 82:6). He rescues us from the measure of slavery, giving us by his grace what we did not possess by nature, and permits us to call God 'Father,' as being admitted to the rank of sons. We received this, together with all our other privileges, from him. One of these privileges is the dignity of freedom, a gift peculiarly befitting those who have been called to be sons. He commands us, therefore, to take boldness and say in our prayers, 'Our Father.'"(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 71) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Jonah 4:1-11 comments that Jonah plunges into despair. Once again, God tries to teach him the meaning of mercy. If the prophet grieves the loss of a simple plant, how much more would the Lord be concerned for an entire city of people who stood on the brink of destruction (Jonah 4:10-11)? The Lord is deeply invested in the lives of each person he created and wants nothing more than to bring them back to himself.
Jonah’s story ends before we find out how he responded to God’s mercy or whether he learned his lesson. But we can learn, even if he didn’t. Because even if he said it as a complaint, Jonah got one thing right: God is gracious and merciful. His mercy extends beyond our narrow parameters. It reaches out beyond us and the people we’re comfortable with. It forgives even our enemies, even those who have hurt us or a loved one. God wants every human being to be united with him in love. And he proves it to us by all the times he reaches out to us in mercy—even if we’re in the belly of a great big fish!
“Loving God, I praise you for your overwhelming mercy!” (Meditation on Jonah 4:1-11, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler discusses the anger of Jonah as he realizes that God will save the city of Nineveh, and the enemies of Israel. The “Lord’s Prayer” in Luke is likely very close to the original and in Matthew it is a fully developed liturgical prayer. Friar Jude reminds us of the connection of our forgiveness of others to our ability to accept forgiveness from God.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Margaret Swedish, an advocate for ecological wholeness, who believes our time of planetary crisis invites us to a deeper, more expansive faith.
Because all of this can appear daunting and terrifying, we also search for an experience of God, a relationship, that is both large enough—and intimate enough—to counter the disorientation, dizziness, and sense of displacement we feel…. We seek … a place for an experience of the Divine within it, a new sense of our true home, of our cherished place in the cosmos and on this planet, a spiritual space large enough to contain all of our fears and our hopes, our questions and our bewilderment….
We need a sense of God that does not invite us to grow smaller, to retreat into personal sins with the expectation of some salvation apart from and outside this larger drama of our earth and cosmos. We need a sense of God that embraces that drama fully, with urgency, with passion, with love, as did the God revealed in Jesus Christ. [1] (Rohr, 2023)
We struggle with the response we have to situations in the world that are truly terrible and horrific as we attend to the Wisdom of the Spirit that asserts the mercy and love of God for all people.
References
Jonah, CHAPTER 4 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/jonah/4?1
Luke, CHAPTER 11 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/11?1
Meditation on Jonah 4:1-11. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/10/11/802796/
Psalms, PSALM 86 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/86?
Rohr, R. (2023, October 11). Expanding Our Faith — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/expanding-our-faith/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Lord, Teach Us to Pray. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=oct11
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