Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

Readings of the Day

With today’s Scriptures we enter deeply into the penitential nature of Lent. They are a call to repentance and conversion as captured in the words of Jesus inaugurating his public ministry: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” - the same words proclaimed in the imposition of ashes.

Repentance and conversion was the “signature” message, if you will, of the Old Testament prophets. Jonah’s message from the Lord spoke against the wickedness of the people of Nineveh. Jonah disobeyed this message, and what followed was the familiar story of Jonah taking flight on a ship, being thrown overboard by the crew, swallowed up in the belly of the whale, and the Lord having the whale spew him out after three days.

In today’s passage the Lord called on Jonah, for the second time, to proclaim the destruction of Nineveh in forty days. Upon hearing the message, he king and the people of Nineveh repented of their wickedness. The Lord responded: “When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.”

Psalm 51, the Miserere, is the definitive penitential psalm in which one humbly expresses sinfulness, seeking the Lord’s forgiveness through his mercy and compassion and recognizing that, in the psalm response, “A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.” Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus denounces the people who are gathered as “an evil generation” resisting repentance. Jesus asserted, “At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

Reflecting on this Lenten penitential theme and called upon, in our ministries, to be ministers of compassion, mercy, love and forgiveness, we are challenged, I believe, to “a heart that is contrite and humbled.” It is this heart in which we humbly first acknowledge our own waywardness, seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness, that can open us more fully to those who also may be struggling with Jesus’ exhortation to “Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful.” So, we prayerfully petition the Lord, “A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.” (Psalm 51:12)

Fr. Dennis M. Weber, SdC, a priest of the Servants of Charity, is the Director of Ministry and Mission for the Developmental Programs Division of Catholic Social Services of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He has been blessed and privileged to serve for over 31 years in this ministry. 

Sign up to receive the Daily Lent Reflection emails and other CCUSA messages here.