Jonah 4:1-11 / Luke 11:1-4 (2019)
Whenever we think about God and justice, we may have this idea of divine judgement and punishment.
When we look at all the evil that is happening around us, we will immediately think of the evil that affects us personally, and also the wide-spread evil like terrorism.
We might like to think that God will one day send forth His judgement on those evil-doers and they will get their retribution.
Such might be the thoughts of Jonah as he began his mission, and secretly he wished divine retribution upon Israel's most hated enemy, the Assyrians, the people who lived in Nineveh.
Yet when it did not happen, he began to sulk and he began to talk sarcastically as we heard in the 1st reading:
Ah Lord, is not this just as I said would happen when I was still at home? That was why I went and fled to Tarshish. I knew you were a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, relenting from evil.
Nice words, but may not be so as it came from a fuming Jonah who wanted to see the people of Niveveh punished.
So now, what is our reaction when God does not seem to punish the evil doers, or gives them another chance, or when He seems too patient with them.
But let us remember that for any true conversion to take place, there must be compassion and mercy, which will lead to reconciliation.
That is the justice of God - God is merciful and compassionate. What He can forgive, He will not punish.
And that is what we ask for in the Lord's prayer, that we will also be merciful and compassionate, and we forgive others just as God forgives us.