A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. While the crowds pressed around Jesus, he began to speak to them in these words. This is an evil age. It's an age that seeks a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was a sign for the Ninevites, so will the son of man be assigned in the present age.
The queen of the South will rise at the judgment along with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. She came from the father's corner of the world to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, Solomon. But you have a greater than Solomon here. At the judgment, the citizens of Nineveh will rise along with the present generation and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they reformed, but you have a greater than Jonah here.
And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. I do not pretend to be to explain these two readings, this relationship between Christ and Jonah and the whale and all of that. But there are a couple of things which are absolutely clear And as clear as these considerations should be, because of very practical problems and because of the fact that we're just the persons we are living in the world we are living in with all the responsibilities that we have and our obligations, we can forget them.
The first one is God. The first one is God. It is easy to forget God. I used to refer to foxhole religion but now people don't know what the foxhole I'm referring to. But we can live our lives on a level I'm talking about living good lives.
I'm not talking about sin and all that, which I'm perfectly willing to to admit exists. I'm saying people trying to do what's right, fulfilling their duties, being good mothers and fathers, being single, do whatever what whatever their their place in life, trying to do their job well, even as Christians, it's easy to forget God. That's point number one. And the second is his son Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man. Are these realities, are these actualities in our lives, everything else is secondary, everything else is instrumental, Everything else is simply to help us to focus on God and his son Jesus Christ.
Everything, and I mean everything. I'm not just talking about the church or prayer or religious devotion or the sacraments. I'm talking about your whole life. Your whole daily living and your night of sleep. Everything.
Everything. We are more than once told that we should not have any gods, but god almighty. I am the lord your god. Why do you think that's the first commandment? Why did it why do you think that God himself emphasizes this?
It's simply because it's so easy to have idols. It's so easy to have idols. And many of these idols are not of our creation. They, in many instances, they are part and parcel of our living responsible lives. The problem and the difficulty is they get inflated and something that is supposed to be a means to an end becomes an end in itself and we fall down and adore our gods.
Now this is something we all have to face whether you're in a monastery, whether you're in the world, whether you're sick, whether you're well, whether you're happy, whether you're sad, whether you're on top of the wave seeing the sun or whether you're in the trough and seeing nothing but a wall of water. You these are two. How do what word can you use to describe them? That there is a God and that God is running the world and I'm his creature and that this God became man for me. For me.
Not for humanity, not for community, not for society. These are abstractions. They're nonexistent. For me, it's my relationship to God and only an individual human being can go to God and say, my Lord and my God. Community can't do it.
Society, those things don't exist except as an abstraction in our minds. Minds. It's the individual person who who knows God. You're not going to love something you don't know. You can't love what you don't know in some way or other.
It's impossible. It didn't take an Aquinas to discover that unless you believe in innate ideas and all that malarkey. And so during this holy season of Lent, let's get back to absolute foundation principles that there is a god and I'm his creature. No matter what else there is involved, that's the first truth. And there are no other gods but he and his son Jesus Christ.
As our lord said in this gospel today, whatever however you interpret all this business about Jonah, you have a greater than Jonah here. The name of the father and of the son, the holy spirit. Amen.