The Sign of Jonah

Day 5: Meditation Talk: THE SIGN OF JONAH. Retreat to the FMAs, Bellefonte Outreach, Shillong.

The “sign of Jonah” is Jesus’ primary metaphor for transformation in the gospels (Matthew 12:39). Jonah was running from God and was used by God almost in spite of himself. Jonah was swallowed by the whale and taken where he would rather not go. This is Jesus’ metaphor for death and re-birth. He says looking for other signs is an evil. He says instead we must go inside the belly of the whale for a while. Then and only then will we be spit upon a new shore and understand our call. That’s the only pattern that Jesus promises us.

We seldom go freely into the belly of the whale. Unless we face a crisis or a disaster or a death of a loved one, we usually will not enter the belly of the whale. Christianity teaches us to enter into darkness willingly and trustingly. These dark periods are good teachers. These dark, uncertain periods are the experiences that help us to transform ourselves. Religious energy is in the dark questions, seldom in the answers.

But very often we try to change events in order to avoid changing ourselves. We don’t want to stay with the pain of life, without answers, without conclusions, and without meaning. We try to hurry and haste towards the solutions… even adopting instant fixes. (This is the culture of instant coffee, instant photos, fast food, ready-made clothes, and super-glue quick fixes.) But the path of true prayer and interiority is a slow, gradual process; it is full of pitfalls and dangers, it is full of uncertainties. That is why many of us opt for “ready-made devotions” rather than deep prayer experience. That is why many of us opt for emotional highs of a confession or penitential prayers or loud “charismatic” intercessions rather than deep spiritual direction and accompaniment. Mind you, the sacrament of confession should rather be an outcome and sign of our deep internal work, and repentance or transformation of one’s life. That is why we are called to change ourselves again and again and again.

It is easier to attend church services than quite simply to reverence the real. Making this commitment (of accepting the reality) consists in vigilance, desire and willingness to begin again and again. The most difficult sacrament to attend is the “sacrament of the present moment.”

We give answers too quickly, take away pain too easily, and too quickly stimulate. We should not get rid of the pain before we have learned what it has to teach us. That’s why the poor have a head start. They can’t resort to an instant fix to any problem, or a crocin, or some entertainment. They remain empty whether they want to or not.

To resit the instant fix and acknowledge oneself as a beginner is to be open to transformation. We need a beginner’s mind. Child-like mind.

We need to understand the darkness in our lives, and enter into it. Light and darkness are not opposites. Darkness is the absence of light.

Immortal diamond. It is nothing but letting go of our egos. Dying to our false selves, dying to our little and narrow-minded and selfish selves. The most important aspect of spirituality is letting go of one’s ego, one’s self.

There must be at least one situation in our lives that we cannot fix or control or change. [Falling Upward, 68.] This will surely keep you humble, and your ego in control.

The sign of Jonah is nothing but the living out of the paschal mystery in our lives. No pain, no gain. No cross, no crown. Unless the wheat dies, there is no fruitfulness. It is in carrying the cross that we find joy, it is in dying to oneself that we find life.

If you have a problem, don’t rush through it.

There is no radical distinction between joy and sorrow. The world gives us a lie, ‘When you are glad, you can’t be sad; when you are sad, you can’t be glad.’ See, for instance on the labour pains of a woman. Normally, she is happy to suffer because that is what will pave the way for a new human person into this world. Jesus himself gives this example in the gospel of John, and also talks of the grain of wheat that has to die.

Your sorrow itself will turn into joy. Not removal of sorrow.

If you are struggling with something just now: you will meet God in it. You will have God-experience especially in your difficulty. This is the paschal pattern. God is not absent in your sorrows; rather if you open your consciousness and embrace the suffering, that itself will become a moment of transformation.

Your shadows are the best spaces for your own growth and maturity. Too much light can blind you, similarly too much darkness can blind you. [Only the soul knows we grow best in the shadowlands. We are blinded inside of either total light or total darkness, but “the light shines on inside the darkness, and it is a light that darkness cannot overcome” (John 1:5). Rohr.]

For the world: Death, illness, human brokenness, ugliness, failures, sinfulness,... all have to be hidden from our sight because they keep us from the happiness for which we strive; they are obstructions on our way to the goal of life. But for Jesus death itself becomes life, the symbol of shame becomes the symbol of hope… with Jesus on it.

The paschal mystery is the pattern of transformation. We are transformed through death and rising, probably many times.

Are you ready to enter the belly of the whale?