It is tempting to think, after a lifetime of spiritual practice, that the call to repentance applies only to beginners. But Jonah and Jesus remind us that from priest to prophet, from king to cow, from God to the entire People of God, all of us are to repent, to change, to begin again. 

Jonah, a prophet of the Lord, needed repentance. Only a Godsent storm and a few days in the darkness of a digestive tract were enough to get him to change his mind. In the misery of that imagery there is a deeply resonant spiritual reality: sometimes the only way we are opened to change is when we sit in the mess of our own making, when we are left alone in the “belly of the beast” to think about what got us here, what and how we are called to change, and what hope and plans God has for us in the future. 

Jonah is spit out upon the beach and, seeing the light of day again, finally answers God’s call. He preaches to the Ninevites, whom he despised, and they repent, from king to cow, at the word of the Lord among them. And the scriptures tell that in the end, even “God repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.” 

Jonah, Jesus, and God remind us each again anew that it is never too late to change: Repent, change your heart, begin again!

Michael J. Sanem, from the March 2025 issue of Give Us This Day, http://www.giveusthisday.org
(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2024). Used with permission.