GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS
Paul
VI Audience Hall-Wednesday, 18 January 2017
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| PHOTO: Zenit/L'osservatore romano |
Christian hope - 6. Jonah:
Hope and Pray
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Good morning.
In Sacred Scripture, among the prophets of
Israel, a rather anomalous figure stands out, a prophet who attempts to avoid
the Lord’s call by refusing to place himself at the service of the divine plan
of salvation. It is the Prophet Jonah, whose story is narrated in a small book
of only four chapters, a type of parable that bears a great lesson, that of the
mercy of God who forgives.
Jonah is a prophet “going out” and also a
prophet in flight! He is an “out-going” prophet whom God sends “to the
periphery”, to Nineveh, in order to convert the people of that great city. But
Nineveh, to an Israelite like Jonah, was a threatening reality, the enemy which
placed Jerusalem itself in peril, and therefore was to be destroyed, certainly
not to be saved. Therefore, when God sent Jonah to preach in that city, the
prophet, who knows the Lord’s goodness and his desire to forgive, seeks to
avoid his task and flees.
During his flight, the prophet enters into
contact with pagans, the mariners on the ship that he boarded in order to
distance himself from God and from his mission. And he flees far, because
Nineveh was in the area of Iraq and he fled to Spain, he seriously fled. And it
was actually the behaviour of these pagan men, as that of the people of Nineveh
later on, that today allows us to reflect a bit on the hope which,
in the face of danger and death, is expressed in prayer.
Indeed, during the sea voyage, a mighty tempest
breaks out, and Jonah goes down to the ship’s cargo hold and falls asleep. The
mariners, however, seeing themselves lost, “each cried to his god”: they were
pagans (Jon 1:5). The captain of the ship wakes Jonah, saying to him: “What do
you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call upon your god! Perhaps the god will give a
thought to us, that we do not perish” (Jon 1:6).
The reaction of these ‘pagans’ is the right
reaction in the face of death, in the face of danger; because it is then that
man fully experiences his frailty and his need for salvation.
The instinctive dread of dying reveals the
necessity of hope in the God of life. “Perhaps God will give a
thought to us, that we do not perish” are the words of hope which become
prayer, that supplication filled with anguish which rises to the lips of
mankind in the face of an imminent danger of death.
We too easily disdain the turning to God in need
as if it were only a prayer of self-interest, and therefore imperfect. But God
knows our weakness. He knows that we remember him in order to ask for help, and
with the indulging smile of a father, God responds benevolently.
When Jonah, recognizing his responsibility,
throws himself into the sea in order to save his travel companions, the storm
quiets down. Incumbent death led those pagan men to prayer, enabling the
prophet, in spite of it all, to live his vocation in service to others,
sacrificing himself for them, and now he leads the survivors to recognize and
praise the true Lord. The mariners who, in the grip of fear, had prayed to
their gods, now, with sincere fear of the Lord, recognize the true God, offer
sacrifices and make vows. Hope, which had induced them to pray to be spared
from death, is revealed as even more powerful and ushers in a reality that goes
even beyond what they were hoping: not only do they not perish in the storm,
but they become open to recognizing the one true Lord of heaven and earth.
Afterwards, even the people of Nineveh, in the
face of the prospect of being destroyed, pray, spurred by hope in God’s
forgiveness. They do penance, invoke the Lord and convert to him, beginning
with the king who, like the ship’s captain, gives voice to hope: “Who knows,
God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?” (Jon
3:9). For them too, as for the crew in the storm, facing death and being saved
from it led them to the truth. Thus under divine mercy, and even more in the
light of the Paschal Mystery, death can become, as it was for Saint Francis of
Assisi, “our sister death” and represent, for every person and for each one of
us, the surprising occasion to know hope and encounter the Lord. May the Lord
help us to understand this link between prayer and hope. Prayer leads you
forward in hope, and when things become dark, more prayer is needed! And there will be more hope. Thank you.
Special greetings:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and
visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from New Zealand,
the Philippines, Canada and the United States of America. Upon you and your
families, I cordially invoke an abundance of joy and peace in our Lord Jesus
Christ. God bless you!
I address a cordial welcome to the
Italian-speaking pilgrims. I express to all the hope that your visit to the
Eternal City may inspire each one to strengthen the Word of God so as to be
able to recognize the Saviour in Jesus.
Lastly I greet the young people, the
sick and newlyweds. Today begins the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity, which this year has us reflect on Christ’s love which
encourages us toward reconciliation. Dear young people, pray that
all Christians may return to be one family; dear sick people, offer
your suffering for the cause of the unity of the Church; and you, dear newlyweds,
experience gratuitous love as that of God for humanity.
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