Jonah swallowed by the whale

Dearly beloved, today the Lord Jesus speaks of the sign of Jonah which is the sign that shall be given to an evil age that seeks for a sign. Now what is the sign of Jonah? It is actually the sign of the Resurrection of Christ. Just as Jonah remained in the belly of a huge fish for three days and three nights, just before he was spewed by the said fish on the shores of Niniveh, so Jesus would spend three days in the belly of the earth in His tomb and He shall rise from the dead. It is the Resurrection that will be the great sign. It is that Resurrection which St. Paul in his letter to the Romans refers to. He speaks of the gospel concerning His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh but was proclaimed as Son of God by the power according to the spirit of Holiness, by His Resurrection from the dead. The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead was the great manifestation of his identity as Son of God. It was the great manifestation of His Divinity and it is that Resurrection that shall be given to the unbelievers as a sign.

The Resurrection

It is the sign that is supposed to convert people to the faith. It is the sign that is supposed to invite people to believe in Jesus, His Resurrection from the dead. And we also participate in that sign of Jonah. The Eucharist is the great sign of Jonah in the sense that Pope John Paul said in his letters on the Eucharist that the Christ who comes among us, who is made present in our needs under the appearance of bread and wine is a Risen Christ. The Christ who has risen from the dead, the Christ who lives forever, the Christ who will never die again. Jesus and this Eucharist stands among us as the Living One, the One Who died, the Lamb who was lamed but now He lives forever.

However, do you realize that the same signs of Jonah also applies to the souls in Purgatory. In what sense? Well, in the Book of Revelation it is said that at the end of time the sea shall give up its dead and Hades which is the world of the dead shall also give up its dead. And Hades and death shall be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death. The picture of Hades, the world of the dead giving up its dead is the very same picture of Jonah of the whale giving up Jonah. It’s the very same picture of the earth giving up the Son of God risen from the dead.

You have here a very beautiful parallelism between Jonah and Christ and the souls in purgatory. Just as Jonah emerged from the whale from the huge fish so Christ emerged from the tomb and just as Christ emerged from the tomb so we hope and we believe that the souls from purgatory shall emerge from purgatory; shall emerge from the place of the dead so as to enter into eternal glory and eternal life. It is this mystery of the Resurrection that we commemorate at the sacred sacrifice, the same mystery that we hope the souls in purgatory shall share once they have emerged from Hades, the purgatory, in order to enter into life.

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