[ Today's Readings ]
This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Jesus, help us to see and accept the sign that is given us, the sign of Jonah.
We might prefer to see signs that help to establish the city of Nineveh and to make it prosper. Yet what if the sign we are given says that the city is at risk, that it might be destroyed? What if it is calling us to hold God as more important to us than the earthly city? Will we still accept that sign?
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,"
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
The sign you give, Jesus, calls us to seek first the kingdom of heaven. It says that nothing earthly can be valued over and against that kingdom. Anything we try to value that way will be stripped from us for our own good. This is a hard sign. But it is a sign we need to see.
It is a sign to which we must respond. Externalities are not enough. Jesus, you want our hearts. Help us to extricate them from the cares of the world so that you can reign in them.
A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
We would prefer any sign but one which calls us to repent. Yet that is the sign we are given. We've given too much allegiance to the earthly city. We need to put the kingdom first.
Help us to recognize this wisdom, Jesus.
there is something greater than Solomon here.
You reveal the wisdom of this sign if we let you. You yourself create for us the heart which you wish us to have.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
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