20 January 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” Jonah 3:10
On the last day of the fast we read the story that gave it its name. Jonah walks into the great city with a short warning: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And “the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.” The king leaves his throne, sits in ashes and says: “Who knows? God may relent and change his mind”. “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity”. Joel shows the same scene in Jerusalem: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly”; gather the old and the children, “even infants at the breast”, and let the priests weep between the vestibule and the altar: “Spare your people, O LORD”. Then “the LORD became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.” This is Moonnu Nombu: a whole people, young and old, together before the altar.
Paul uses the image of the potter to say that all depends on God's mercy, and that he gathers “objects of mercy” not only from Israel but from the Gentiles: “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people’”. Nineveh, a pagan city that repented, was an early sign of it. Jesus adds a warning so that our fast does not end in a show: “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them”. When we give alms, the left hand must not know what the right hand is doing, and “your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Today we also honour St Sebastian, much loved in Kerala, and pray for our bishops who bear his name. Tradition remembers him as an officer who quietly strengthened Christians in prison before he confessed Christ openly with his blood. Let our fast end with mercy done in secret and faith confessed without fear.
Theme: “God changed his mind… and he did not do it.”
The fast of the Ninevites ends: a whole people turns, God has pity, and mercy is done in secret.
“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.” Joel 2:15–16
“But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:3–4
Apply: Give what you saved by fasting, in secret.
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” Jonah 3:10
“The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!” Matthew 12:41
Apply: Turn from one specific sin as the fast ends.
“But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the LORD, and my reward with my God.”” Isaiah 49:4
““Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven;” Matthew 10:32
Apply: Do not hide your faith this week.
God had pity on Nineveh, and he has pity on us.
End the fast with mercy in secret and faith without fear.
Take-home resolution: Break the fast with an act of hidden charity for someone in need.
Dear friends, on the last day of our fast we read the story that gave it its name. Jonah walks into Nineveh and cries: forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth (Jonah 3:5).
The king leaves his throne and sits in ashes. He says: who knows? God may relent. And when God saw how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity, and he did not do it (Jonah 3:10). Joel shows the same: blow the trumpet, sanctify a fast, gather even the infants, let the priests weep at the altar: spare your people, O LORD. And the LORD had pity on his people (Joel 2:15–18).
Paul says God gathers objects of mercy from every nation: those who were not my people I will call my people (Romans 9:25). Nineveh was a pagan city, and God had pity on it. No one is outside his mercy.
Jesus warns us not to spoil the fast at the end. Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them. When you give alms, let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:1–4). Let us give quietly what we have saved by fasting.
Today we honour St Sebastian and pray for our bishops who bear his name. He served Christ quietly among the soldiers, and when the time came he confessed him openly, without fear. Let us end this fast the same way: mercy in secret, faith without fear. Amen.
Children, the whole city of Nineveh said sorry to God, even the king and the little children, and God forgave them! Today, do one kind thing for someone without telling anybody. Only God will know.
Merciful God, when Nineveh fasted and turned from evil, you had pity and did not do the evil you had threatened. Look on your people at the end of these three days; spare us, Lord, and make us objects of your mercy. Teach us to do good in secret, and through the prayers of St Sebastian make us brave in confessing your name. Amen.
On the last day of the fast we read the story that gave it its name. Joel calls the whole people, from the old to the infants at the breast, to the altar. Jonah walks into Nineveh with a short warning, and a great pagan city believes God. Paul uses the image of the potter to say that everything depends on God's mercy, which gathers people “not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles”. And Jesus warns that the best of fasts can end as a performance. The key words are together, who knows? and in secret. Today we also remember St Sebastian.
Setting.
We do not know Joel's exact date; many place him after the exile. The book opens with a terrible plague of locusts that has stripped the land (1:4), and it sees in it a warning of the Day of the Lord. In 2:12–14 God himself calls: “return to me with all your heart”. Our reading follows at once, and it is the practical order of service for a national day of penance.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.” (2:16)
Even those excused from every other duty are called: a newly married couple (compare Deuteronomy 24:5) and babies who cannot understand. Sin and repentance concern a whole community, and this is why Moonnu Nombu brings whole families to church.
“Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.” (2:17)
This was the place in the Temple court where the priests stood. The ministers of the altar begin the people's tears. A clergy that does not weep cannot lead a fast.
“Then the Lord became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.” (2:18)
The book turns on this verse. All the verbs of command have come before it, and now God acts. From here until the end, the book is a promise, which includes the pouring out of the Spirit (2:28–29; Acts 2:17).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism cites Joel 2:12–13 when it teaches that the call of the prophets and of Jesus aims first at the conversion of the heart, and not first at outward works such as sackcloth and ashes (CCC 1430). Interior penance is expressed above all in fasting, prayer and almsgiving (CCC 1434), and the Church has her own seasons of penance, “intense moments of the Church's penitential practice” (CCC 1438).
Setting.
The Book of Jonah stands among the prophets, but it is a story about a prophet, not a collection of oracles. Many Catholic scholars read it as an inspired teaching story, while others read it more as history; its message stands either way, and Jesus himself uses it as a sign (Matthew 12:39–41; Luke 11:29–32). Nineveh was a capital of Assyria, the empire that destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. To send a prophet there was to send him to the most feared enemy of his own people. Jonah has fled and has been thrown back on the shore. Now the word comes “a second time”.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying,” (3:1)
Jonah's sin did not cancel his call. The God who gives Nineveh a second chance has already given Jonah one.
“Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (3:4)
In Hebrew the sermon is five words. It does not even mention God or repentance. The verb can also mean “turned over”, as Sodom was overthrown (Genesis 19:25), and Nineveh is indeed turned around, by conversion. A note on the text. The Greek Septuagint here reads “three days”, whereas the Hebrew, followed by the NRSV and the POC, reads “forty”.
“And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.” (3:5)
It begins with the people, and only afterwards does the news reach the king (v. 6). The conversion rises from below.
“When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” (3:6)
The ruler of the most powerful city gets down in the dirt, in contrast with Jonah, who has just fled. Even animals are made to fast in v. 7, which is both comic and serious, for the whole of creation shares in sin's consequences.
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” (3:10)
God does not see their sackcloth first. He sees that they have turned from their evil ways. So the decree in v. 8 mentions the violence in their hands. This is the true fast.
How the Church reads it.
Jesus says that “the people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment” (Matthew 12:41), and the Catechism notes that he spoke of the sign of Jonah when he pointed to his Resurrection (CCC 994). In the Syriac tradition the story of Nineveh has long been preached at this fast, and there are long metrical homilies on the repentance of Nineveh attributed to Mar Aprem.
Setting.
Paul is in the middle of his reflection on Israel (Romans 9–11). If God chooses, why does he still find fault? This reading is his reply, and it is one of the hardest passages in his letters. It should be read through to the end of chapter 11, where he closes with mercy for all (11:32). The image of the potter is an old one: Isaiah 29:16; 45:9; Jeremiah 18:1–6; Wisdom 15:7.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God?” (9:20)
Paul does not forbid honest prayer, which Scripture is full of. He rejects a claim to judge God from the outside.
“What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction;” (9:22)
Notice “with much patience”. This is the patience shown to Nineveh. Paul asks a question, and he does not lay down a doctrine that God has created some people for hell. The Church teaches that “God predestines no one to go to hell” (CCC 1037).
“including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (9:24)
Here is the point of the whole passage. God's mercy is wider than anyone had thought. The people of Nineveh were an early sign of it.
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” (9:25)
Hosea (2:23) spoke these words about Israel itself, restored after unfaithfulness. Paul now applies them to the Gentiles as well: the same mercy for all.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that God predestines no one to go to hell, and that this comes only by a wilful turning away from God (CCC 1037). God's eternal plan includes each person's own response to his grace (CCC 600). The Church's relationship with the Jewish people is unique, for to them belong the covenants, and the gifts of God are irrevocable (CCC 839; Nostra Aetate 4).
Setting.
The Sermon on the Mount has just taught a righteousness deeper than the outward rule (Matthew 5). Chapter 6 now takes the three great works of Jewish piety, almsgiving, prayer and fasting, and gives each the same pattern: do not do it to be seen; the Father sees in secret. Our reading is the first of the three. Jesus takes for granted that his disciples will do these things: he says “whenever you give alms”, not “if”.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (6:1)
This does not contradict “let your light shine” (5:16). There the purpose is that others may give glory to the Father; here the purpose is one's own glory. The question is who is meant to be seen.
“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.” (6:2)
We have no evidence of actual trumpets being blown: this is a vivid picture, of the kind Jesus loves. Today the trumpet may be a plaque, a list of donors, or a post on a phone.
“But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” (6:3)
Taken literally this is impossible, and that is the point. Forget it yourself too.
“so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (6:4)
Some later manuscripts add “openly”, a word not in the best witnesses. The secret is not empty, for someone is looking. The whole of Christian hiddenness lives on this: the Father sees.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the New Law practises the acts of religion, namely almsgiving, prayer and fasting, directing them to the “Father who sees in secret” (CCC 1969), and that interior penance can be expressed in fasting, prayer and almsgiving (CCC 1434). St Peter Chrysologus preaches that prayer, fasting and mercy are three things that are one, and that they give life to each other: fasting is the soul of prayer, and mercy is the lifeblood of fasting (in substance; Sermon 43).
Did Nineveh's repentance last?
Nineveh later fell to the Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC (see the Book of Nahum). The Book of Jonah does not deny this. Its point is that God wants the repentance of every people, and that he hears it at once. Each generation must turn for itself.
Does Romans 9 mean that God creates some people to be damned?
No. The Church teaches that God predestines no one to hell (CCC 1037), and that he “desires everyone to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4). Paul's question is about God's freedom to show mercy to the Gentiles and to Israel. It ends in the words “that he may be merciful to all” (Romans 11:32).
Should I never let anyone know what I give?
Sometimes a good deed will be seen, and even should be, as with the Church's public works of charity. The question is whose glory I am seeking. Where possible, keep your own giving private, and let the giving be for the sake of the poor and the Father.
Moonnu Nombu ends today, and tomorrow we give thanks. Like Nineveh, the Church has fasted as one people. The calendar notes that the Third Qudasha is used today, and it gives other readings for St Sebastian. Sebastian is remembered by tradition as a Roman soldier who strengthened Christians in prison and gave his life for Christ. He is greatly loved in Kerala, and his name is carried by many of our people, some of our bishops among them. Let this fast end with mercy done in secret and with faith confessed without fear, and let us pray for all who suffer for their faith in many lands, and for those who wronged them.