Repent....the Kingdom of God is at hand.

The Assyrian Empire was in what is now Iraq.

Assyria was the empire that conquered the Northern 10 tribes of Israel

And exiled them, never to be heard of again.

Thus the origin of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.

Nineveh was the capital and was filled with every kind of wickedness you can imagine.

So God told Jonah to preach repentance to Nineveh.

For If Nineveh did not repent,

God was going to destroy it for its sins.

Jonah however did not want them to repent.

He wanted God to destroy them for their wickedness.

What do we want God to do to our enemies?

To people who sin and cause harm to others?

Maybe if God would just get rid of them

The world would be a better place!

Most people know from what “other” people need to repent.

Is it always the other person who needs to repent?

The other person who is the problem?

But what about ourselves?

Our sins are like our noses.

We can’t see our own but everyone else can.

Jesus preached the need for repentance too.

Not because God was going to wipe out sinners,

But because the Kingdom of God was at hand.

The Kingdom of God is coming and Jesus is bringing it,

And if we wish to enter its gates,

Then we must repent of our sins.

Of our pride and selfishness;

Lust and anger;

Self righteousness and jealousy;

Gossip and gluttony

Because there there is no room for these things in the Kingdom of God

The message of Jesus and Jonah is repent.

Jesus however tells us to repent,

Not for fear of Hell,

But for Love of Heaven.

For as St. Paul says,

“This world is passing away even as we speak

And the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

And only those who repent

Can enter its gates.

God Bless

All Things Franciscan