Everyday when we wake up and in good condition we should always thank God, we have not done anything to deserve it.
‎The readings today invite us to pray and work towards building God’s kingdom: promoting peace, encouraging solidarity, shunning nepotism and self centeredness. Jonah is a preacher , but in his preaching he was biased. He is preaching to Nineveh and hoping that they shouldn’t receive the message so that they could perish. So in many occasions we are more interested in condemning our enemies, and looking for our own comfort than trying to promote the kingdom of God. So God proved to him that he was selfish, he planted a nice tree overnight near the house of Jonah and Jonah was very happy, but shortly after the tree died then Jonah was angry with the Lord. So God asked him you are not happy because a tree has died but you want a whole nation to perish? What kind of a righteous man are you?
‎That’s why in the gospel Jesus invites all of us to pray and work towards a true kingdom of God, not just promoting our own comfort, or promoting our own kingdom, or promoting our own interests in the name of righteousness. We are hoping for others to sin and be condemned, but God is teaching us to learn to forgive each other because your sins are just right before you. So we should pray that the attitude of God is more in us than our own inclinations or wishes against others.
‎May the peace of God be in our hearts
By Fr. Josephat Diyuo
