When Jonah was thrown into the sea to keep the crew and cargo of his ship from being destroyed by a storm, he was “swallowed by a huge fish” and vomited up near the shore on his way to Nineveh.
Predicting the coming death, descent into hell, and Resurrection of Jesus, for “three days and nights” Jonah’s skin and hair were burned away by the powerful digestive juices in the fish’s stomach. By The Power of God, he could still walk, see, hear, and speak. Walking through Nineveh, people saw a “walking, talking Miracle of God”! Everyone asked in astonishment: “What happened to you?” He explained, “My agonizing chemical burns are the price I paid for fleeing from God.” That disfiguring disobedience let all who saw him understand God’s Power and heed his warning: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
When they saw The Living Miracle of God that Jonah was, “The people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.”
“The King of Nineveh and his Nobles proclaimed: ‘Neither man nor beast, cattle nor sheep shall taste anything, they shall not eat or drink water, and turn away from evil ways.’ When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, He repented of the evil He had threatened to do to them; He did not carry it out.”
Today’s Psalm 130:1-4, and 7-8 reinforces the fact that “with God is forgiveness” and reminds us to ask: “If You, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?”
Those Old Testament Teachings are summed up in Luke 11:28: “Blessed are those who hear The Word of God and observe it.”
Catholics are blessed to “hear and observe” The only Church-Creating Word that He Who Fulfilled over 300 Messianic Prophecies Spoke to His First Catholic Pope: “And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
May all respect God’s Word as much as the people of Nineveh and the Psalmist, Be Catholic, and get those “keys to The Kingdom of Heaven”, which include the Seven Catholic Sacraments, for our immortal souls, while we have time on earth to do so.
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “May all choose to obey / and not stray away / from Any Word of God.”
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