Jonah 4:1-11 / Luke 11:1-4
In life, it is necessary to step back for a while to look at the big picture.
Because the tendency is to focus too much on ourselves and what we think.
In doing so, we may forget about God and about other people.
In the 1st reading, Jonah was indignant and he was even angry with God.
He resented that God made him go to the Ninevites to preach repentance and they converted.
Jonah hated the Ninevites because they were the arch-enemies of Israel, and he wanted to see them punished, but he was wrong.
God was more merciful and compassionate than he thought.
And God also made Jonah see a bigger picture.
If Jonah felt sorry about a castor-oil plant that grew but perished overnight, how can God not feel sorry for Nineveh in which there were more than a hundred and twenty thousand people when they repented.
In the gospel, Jesus taught His disciples the prayer of the “Our Father”.
When we pray that prayer, we acknowledge that God is our Father and that we are His children.
As God’s children, let us see life and people as God sees them.
Then we will see that God is love, mercy and compassion.
When we can see as God sees, then we will also want to be like God.