A fantastical journey in the belly of whales

A reflection on the daily readings, for Monday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time, by Father Perry.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

There is fantasy, and there is FANTASY.

Today, we have fantasy.

Jonah and the whale — I mean, how fantastic can we be?

Here is a story of truly unbelievable stature.

Jonah gets the call from God to prophetically speak to a sinful people. He was told to tell these people that they had sinned and had turned, “away from the Lord.”

And then Jonah, both figuratively and literally, actually decides to not go to Nineveh as God had instructed him to do but instead to flee in the opposite direction and to go “away from the Lord” the direction of Tarshish.

He even, in the midst of a punishing storm, sent to him and all of his shipmates — by, of course, the Lord — turns further “away from the Lord,” as he goes into the ship’s belly and enters a deep sleep to avoid any possibility of hearing this Lord and doing as he was instructed.

And so the entire shipload of travelers on this sea — fearing for their dear lives — goes through the process of figuring out that Jonah is the culprit; at Jonah’s own suggestion, it is decided to throw him overboard.

The story only gets more fantastic.

And not today, but in the very near future, we will hear the fantastic conclusion.

Stay right here!

In the Gospel, we hear another fantastical story.

Jesus himself tells it in response to a lawyer’s questioning.

Christ tells a story of mercy and love; he takes the lawyer on a journey of victimization by sinful robbers.

He reveals mercy and love from a most unimaginable source — not a priest! not a sacristan-like caretaker (a Levite) of the temple celebrations! But a Samaritan — a sworn enemy of the Jews.

He was “moved with compassion.”

This was someone who obviously did not turn “away from the Lord,” but rather “found the Lord” in a moment of mercy.

This was someone who could see with his heart.

This was someone who had truly learned to “love his neighbor as himself.”

Even the crafty lawyer could figure that out.

And Jesus simply instructed him to “go and do likewise.”

This fantastical story would suggest that the lawyer got the point and learned mercy and compassion that day.

And, of course, we are being led to learn the same conclusion.

This amazing story of Jesus is almost as fantastical as coming back to do the Lord’s will in, from, and through a journey “in the belly of a whale.”

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Father Perry Dean Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com.