Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

on



Year A 

Micah 6:1-4.6-8

Psalm 50:5-6.8-9.16bc-17. 21 and 23 ( R.23bc)

Matthew 12:38-42

EXCEPT  THE "SIGN OF JONAH" SAVES US 



 The sign  of Jonah is Resurrection. Just as a signboard points to a place, the sign of Jonah like a shadow points to the reality found in Jesus Christ.  Jesus makes us aware what really happened to Jonah, when he was in the belly of the fish or as from the Prayer of Jonah himself, in the "belly of Shoel".

Jonah 2:3 

Out of my distress I cried to Yahweh and he answered me, from the belly of Sheol I cried out; you heard my voice!

 From Jonah's prayer, he means he is not alive anymore because for the Jews, "Shoel" is the place of the dead. 
In  Job 7:9, we hear that no one who goes down to Sheol can come back.

Job 7:9 

A cloud dissolves and is gone, so no one who goes down to Sheol ever comes up again,

 Just as Jonah who spent three days and nights came out from the belly of the fish, so Jesus Christ came out from the grave after three days.The sing of Jonah is the "Resurrection power of our Lord Jesus Christ ".
Even the doubter of the Apostles called Thomas when he encountered the resurrected Jesus professed faith in him as "Lord and God".

What God is giving us which is greater than Jonah and Solomon is "Mercy". Is because of sin that death became the nature of man. God has saved us several times even though we do not acknowledge it and we continue to go contrary to his will like the people of Israel in the first reading. 

In his merciful love, God took flesh, and becoming like us in all things except sin, he undid the the effect of sin and overthrew its reward which is death also, through his resurrection where he himself without any aid, came up from Sheol. In his resurrection we find mercy, we did not deserve to be redeemed from the hands of Sheol but God has given us the opportunity to come back to life. 

Sin and death  has no power over us. God has brought salvation to us, by establishing his Kingdom here. With his Spirit at work in our world, he is continuously renewing the face of the earth. God does not want any burnt offering, God calls us only to turn to him, to do what is right, to love loyalty and to walk humbly with him. God calls us to surrender our life to him and make our lives rather a living sacrifice to him.That is all he requires from us so that we will be saved.

By

Sylvester Amakye-Quayson 

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