Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
—Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,—
when the people of Nineveh believed God;

My brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

I imagine Jonah’s message was very clear to the Ninevites. —Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.—

The Ninevites did not wait for Jonah to personally announce God’s message to each and every inhabitant. Everyone from the smallest to the greatest got to work. Everyone, the king included, put on sack cloth, covered themselves in ashes, and did not eat for forty days.

We are very concrete people. We do not like it when we cannot get our arms around an issue. We want to understand and we want guarantees.

How many people have ever asked someone close to them if they love them? Do you love me? Whether said out loud or in the silence of our hearts, the question shows our inability to understand.

Love is not concrete. We can only grasp at the idea or emotion of love based on our experience. Even symbols of love – flowers, candy, jewelry (you can see I am a man), do not guarantee what is unfathomable.

I would dare say that you would have liked Jonah’s message. It was very concrete and was delivered as a guarantee. You might have tried to run away, some might even give in to a doubt about the existence of a God that delivers retribution, but I think the majority would do penance.

Even Paul, in the early Church, gave into the concept of an almost immediate end time. Early Christians believed that the world would pass away, and the kingdom would be ushered in, in their lifetime. They were a little shocked when people started dying and the end hadn’t come.

Listen to Paul:

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.

Not quite as concrete as the forty day scenario, but nevertheless, pretty close at hand.

Now here comes Jesus:

Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
—This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.—

These words and our experiences tell us that we have no idea when the end is coming. Jesus himself was in the dark on this —“ and told us it was a knowledge reserved to the Father.

Suddenly it is not so clear. Suddenly we want to sing with the psalmist:

Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.

I think he is asking God to give him a clue.

We want that more concrete statement. OK Jesus, give me forty days and I’ll get things fixed right up. And while we sit and wonder and dream and philosophize about God’s knowledge, our life passes away.

If it isn’t clear yet, let me say it again:

—The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.—

It is time for less talk and more action. Fewer meetings and more work. For the Kingdom is at hand. Take action, and work for the Kingdom. We are to make a major change in our lives, for the Kingdom.

I tell you, I know the Kingdom, and it is a wonderful place. It is fertile fields and a land flowing with milk and honey. It is the new and eternal Jerusalem descending from the sky. It is a marvelous mansion with a room prepared just for you. It is a banquet at the table of the Lamb. It is that place where we shall stand about the throne of the Lamb and sing Alleluia, Hosanna to the Son of David, the Eternal King, the Alpha and the Omega.

Jesus extended a gold plated invitation to us and sealed it in His blood. He is giving us every opportunity to make the choice for Him. He is giving us every chance we need to set ourselves aright.

—This is the time of fulfillment.—

Act now.

Amen.

Eli said to Samuel, —Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply,
Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.—
When Samuel went to sleep in his place,
the LORD came and revealed his presence,
calling out as before, —Samuel, Samuel!—
Samuel answered, —Speak, for your servant is listening.—

Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him,
not permitting any word of his to be without effect.

My brothers and sisters in Christ,

Does God need man?

It certainly appears that way. Throughout the Old a New Testaments God called men and women into His service. Finally, at that moment in time determined by God, the Father sent His only Son into the world to speak to us as a man. To speak to us in a way we can clearly understand.

God called the men and women of biblical times, not because He had to, for God can do all things. God does not need to address us in ways we can fathom with our senses. But he called them nevertheless. He called them so that His action within our lives is consistent with the revealed truth.

What is revealed truth?

Revealed truth is that truth that can be seen and understood. It is universally acknowledged truth. It takes the form of what our senses can perceive, what our minds can know, and what our hearts and souls know is right.

The revealed truth is written into each and every one of us from the time of our conception. We call this the Natural Law. The natural law is the rule of conduct which is written into us by God, our Creator. It is how we can know God, how we can know right from wrong, how even heretics, pagans, and those not evangelized, can know God. It is part of the very depth of each human person’s nature written by the hand of God.

The fullness of revealed truth lies in Christ Jesus and His word as taught and interpreted by His Church. God is the truth revealed to us by His grace.

My family in Christ,

St. Paul writes of the humanness of God’s saving work. He tells us once again that our humanity has been paid for by the Son on the cross.

Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been purchased at a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body.

God calls you today. The sacrament of God’s Word, proclaimed to you today, the sacrament of the Word, taught to you today, calls you.

Check your hearts. Examine whether the knowledge of God is within you. Stop, be quiet, and listen.

…

Your very nature is calling out, I believe! I have faith in God! You are here for a reason. Even if that reason is masked by other reasons, you cannot deny that the call to faith in God and His truth is within you.

God is calling you today. Like He called Samuel, He calls you.

Brothers and Sisters,

He calls you because God desires to communicate with you. He calls you by what He wrote upon your heart from the moment you were conceived. He calls you in ways you can see, feel, and hear.

Consider the great sacrament of the altar, the most holy body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. What we see with our eyes and taste with our tongues supplies us with something our senses cannot perceive —“ but that is known in our hearts; that which is known by God’s call and our faith. The sacrament is Jesus Himself. We physically take Him into ourselves.

St. Thomas Aquinas writing about the Holy Eucharist said: Praestet fides supplementum, Sensuum defectui. Faith supplies that which our senses fail to perceive.

In today’s Gospel St. John proclaims:

—Behold, the Lamb of God.—
The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.

When Father Andrew stands here and says: —This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,— will you stand up to receive Him?

I tell you, do not just receive Him, but like St. Andrew get to work, with joy in your heart, and let everyone know. Let God use you.

Like Andrew cry out:

—We have found the Messiah— – which is translated Christ

…and bring all people to Jesus.