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If Jesus were to appear amongst us today, what would He say to us about our generation?

We are presented with two contrasting scenarios (two groups of people at different times, with different attitudes to wrongdoings) in the readings of today. The first scenario from the 1^st reading is that of people who do not ignore warning signs. Jonah preached to Nineveh and they repented. They heard the word, and without questioning or trying to justify themselves, acknowledged their iniquities and showed by their actions that they were truly sorry, and even God was moved by their true repentance – the spirit of Lent. Humility is what will help us all to see our wrongs, to look in the face of a brother or sister and say, my brother/my sister, I’m sorry, I was wrong.

The second scenario (group of people) is found in the gospel. Jesus preached to the people of his time and they did not repent. I identify myself with this group (I do not know about you) through no fault of mine but rather because of the generation into which I was born: the world of science. A world of empiricism. A generation of the senses, where faith in God means nothing unless we see a sign. A generation where we don’t want to examine and make efforts to renounce our sins and attitudes, although we know ourselves and what we need to do. I am not in any way trying to justify myself or my iniquities, Lord, but I am making an outcry of my situation, a confession to you.

Empiricism is part of my upbringing. Why do you refuse me a sign? I am only an heir to the ages and have inherited a strange confusion. In my confusion, I tried to escape from you. Because I fear abandoning myself to your providential care. So, I claim to be the master of my fate and soul. Hence, freedom became my measure of what it truly means to be human. Thus, my generation invented free science, free love, free markets, free press, free thought, and many other freedoms.

Lord, I feared that when you become the driver of my life, you will lead me against the pleasure I derive from my senses, against the strong current of my generation that tries to take me away and drown me. I call on you for help but not constantly. Sometimes, I feel you hear me; other times, I feel you do not, and so I want to give up praying altogether and going to Mass. Yet, you are near me, constantly inviting me, challenging me in the depth of my heart through your spirit that sustains me; though my age prefers to call your voice merely ‘conscience’. Lord, even this – life itself – is a constant sign that you give me each day, a sign that I ignore even as I ask you for a sign.

O Lord have mercy on me according to your merciful love, wash me completely from my iniquities, and cleanse me from my sins. Please, Lord, create a pure heart for me, O God; renew a steadfast spirit within me so that if today I hear your voice, I harden not my heart. Today, you are sending me as Jonah to be the sign demanded by my generation. You are sending me to be a sign to my brothers and sisters, to a broken world, a world full of wars, a world where evil is glorified and good demonised. I fear and want to hide from you. But how can I hide from you? Even in the darkness, you are there. I want to run and hide from you because those to whom you are sending me to be a sign and to preach repentance are my companions in evil. I share the same weakness with them, weaknesses I have yet to overcome.

Nevertheless, you are inviting me through signs of your body, the Church, during this period of Lent, to tear my heart and not my garment; to humble myself before you, and turn from my iniquities to seek you with all sincerity. To make time and visit a brother, listen to him, to visit the sick, share my possessions with the poor, visit those in prison; to show your love and compassion to others. By this, I will be acting as a sign to my generation. Lord, I am weak, but you are mighty. I hear your voice in the quiet of my heart telling me, “My grace is sufficient for you.” So, I pray, Lord, help me not to be arrogant, unrepentant, trying to justify myself, and my iniquities by doing mental gymnastics and twisted or bad philosophy, taught to me by no other person than myself.

Lord, help me to obtain during this Lent, the thirteenth chapter of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians which I lack. Give also to me the spirit of bold resolve, to recognise temptation, not to dispute with it, nor compromise, but to give it a clear refusal, as the simplest strategy. That which I fast from is not only for the period of Lent, but must be for my entire life, a progress in my spiritual journey. But, so often, what do I see but my own yielding to the flesh again and again. As cried out by your great saint, Paul, “I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…. O wretch man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:15-25), who through His body, the Church has set aside this season, for me to pause, stop, and humble myself before you.

O Lord, you know all things. You know I love you and yet am weak; forgive my weakness for I am poor and needy. I have made for myself an idol of my phone, social media, among others. As part of my inherited confusion, I no longer kneel to pray to you when I awake. I immediately pray to my phone; yielding to my passions. I grab my phone to check how many chats and calls I have missed; how many people liked my post; a post which has nothing to do with you. I no long pray to you; I no longer seek you in the quiet of my heart but in vanity; in things that give no true peace and happiness. Do not cast me away from your presence. My sacrifice to you is a broken spirit; a humble contrite heart, O, God you will not spurn.

I choose today, Lord, to identify with the people of Nineveh, an attitude of repentance, of humility of heart, as I confess my iniquities, that you may heal me together with my generation. I no longer want to be identified with the people of Jesus’ day, proud, arrogant, and unrepentant unless they see a sign. Empiricists like the Israelites who wanted a god they could see, who wanted to be like everybody else (other nations). So, they asked Aron for a golden calf and Samuel for a king whom they could see; people only of the senses.

The two different generations presented to us in today’s readings are people of different times. We often excuse ourselves that times have changed, which is true. However, it does not follow that God has also changed. Jesus still wants us to be holy, by truly repenting from our evil ways. Lord, help me to be obedient to your call that I may bear good fruits, that I may grow in showing compassion and love. My prayer today is the prayer of the blind Bartimaeus, as I cry out to you, Kyrie eleison! Christe eleison! Kyrie eleison!

By Bekone Y. Paul SJ.

Arrupe Jesuit University, Harare, Zimbabwe

In the Chapel of the Holy Name AJU.