19 January 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Matthew 24:42
On the second day, Jonah finally obeys. He walks a day's journey into the great city and cries his short message. “And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.” The king's decree is remarkable: “All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent.” Fasting without turning from violence and evil would mean nothing. Nineveh fasted with its hands as well as its stomach.
Jesus warns that his coming will be like the days of Noah: people “were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” and did not notice until the flood came. “Keep awake therefore.” Paul tells us how the watchful live: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good… Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.” Today we remember Mar Macarios the Great, the monk of the Egyptian desert, whose watchful prayer and gentleness made him a father to many.
Theme: “Keep awake therefore.”
Nineveh's turning, the watchful heart, and genuine love.
“Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.” Joel 2:12–13
“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;” Romans 12:9
Apply: Put right one injustice this week.
“Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” Genesis 6:22
“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Matthew 24:42
Apply: Examine your conscience each night of the fast.
“Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;” Isaiah 55:6
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.” Romans 12:12
Apply: Pray the evening prayer with your family.
A true fast turns us from evil.
The watchful live in genuine love and prayer.
Take-home resolution: Make peace with one person before the fast ends.
Dear friends, on the second day of the fast Jonah obeys. He enters Nineveh and cries out. And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth (Jonah 3:5).
The king commands: all shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands (Jonah 3:8). Nineveh fasted with its hands as well as its stomach. Our fast too must change how we treat others.
Jesus warns that his coming will be like the days of Noah, when people did not notice until the flood came. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming (Matthew 24:42).
Paul tells us how the watchful live: let love be genuine; rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer (Romans 12:9, 12). With Mar Macarios, let us keep the faith and keep awake. Amen.
Children, the people of Nineveh stopped doing bad things and said sorry to God. Let us be kind at home today, and say sorry if we hurt someone.
Lord God, the people of Nineveh believed you and turned from violence and evil. Keep us awake for the coming of your Son, make our love genuine, and through the prayers of Mar Macarios keep us steadfast in the true faith. Amen.
On the second day the prophet obeys, and a whole city turns. Our calendar reads chapter 3 today and Jonah's prayer of chapter 2 tomorrow, so the story's order is changed here. Keep in mind that in the story the fish has already given Jonah back. The Gospel warns against living as if nothing could interrupt us, and the Epistle (Romans 12:9–15) says how the watchful live. The key words are overthrown, turned and keep awake.
Setting.
This is the middle of the story. After the storm, the fish and the prayer, God does not choose another prophet. “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time”. The storyteller paints Nineveh in big colours: a three days' walk across, and a fast that takes in even the animals. The picture is deliberately larger than life, and it smiles a little as it teaches.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”” (3:4)
Jonah goes only a day's walk into a city three days across, and he does not mention God or mercy. The ancient Greek Bible reads “three days” here, while the Hebrew, the NRSV and the POC have “forty”. Forty is the Bible's number for testing and for penance.
“And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.” (3:5)
The people act before the king hears. It is one of the finest sentences in the prophets, said of Israel's enemies. Compare what Genesis 15:6 says of Abraham.
“All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands.” (3:8)
The animals in sackcloth may make us smile. The serious note is in the word “violence”. A fast that leaves violence in the hands is not the fast God wants (Isaiah 58:3–7).
“Who knows? God may relent and change his mind;” (3:9)
The pagan king presumes nothing. Joel 2:14 has the same “Who knows?” Humility does not demand mercy; it hopes for it.
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind” (3:10)
God sees their works, and the text names their turning, not their fasting, as what he saw.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Jesus' call to conversion, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, “sackcloth and ashes,” fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart (CCC 1430). Those outward works then give it expression (CCC 1430–1431, 1434). St John Chrysostom, preaching on the Statues in a frightened Antioch, pointed to this verse: God did not say that he saw their fasting, but that they turned from evil ways (in substance). Mar Aphrahat, in his Demonstration on Fasting, also holds up the fast of the Ninevites as a true fast (in substance).
Setting.
Still in the final discourse on the Mount of Olives, Jesus has said that no one knows the day or the hour except the Father (24:36). These verses work that out with two pictures, the days of Noah and the thief at night, and they lead on to the faithful servant (24:45–51).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark,” (24:38)
There is nothing wrong with any of these things. The danger is to live wholly inside them, as if nothing else could happen.
“Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.” (24:40)
The two look alike and do the same work. The difference is inward and cannot be seen from outside.
“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” (24:42)
Notice the word “your”. The one who is coming is our Lord, and it is his servants who wait for him.
“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (24:44)
Jonah's sermon gave Nineveh forty days. We are given no number, so the time to turn is today.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that since the Ascension Christ's coming has been imminent, even though it is not for us to know the times (CCC 673), and that we must therefore watch constantly (CCC 1036, quoting Lumen Gentium 48). It warns against any claim to calculate the end. The first fruit of a fast is the clear head it gives, and Paul's list in today's Epistle shows what a person awake actually does: love without pretence, patience, prayer and hospitality.
Does “one will be taken” mean the “rapture” some preachers speak of?
No. The idea of a secret rapture of believers before the end is a modern teaching, and the Catholic Church does not hold it. Jesus is speaking of the one coming of the Son of Man in glory, and he uses these pictures to say: be ready.
Mar Macarios the Great, whom we remember today, was a monk of the Egyptian desert in the fourth century, long remembered for his gentleness. The watchfulness of the desert is what the Gospel asks of us. It is also the name day of Geevarghese Mar Makarios. Pray for him, and pray in this Unity Octave for the oneness of all Christians.