{"id":21576,"date":"2022-08-19T09:54:04","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T13:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21576"},"modified":"2022-08-19T09:57:01","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T13:57:01","slug":"the-sign-of-jonah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21576","title":{"rendered":"The Sign of Jonah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-Gv8VDqc-os\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard\ndescribes the pattern of transformation Jesus offers through \u201cthe sign of\nJonah,\u201d which is the mystery of death and resurrection:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus\u2019 primary metaphor for the mystery of transformation\nis the sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:39, 16:4; Luke 11:29). Jesus tells the growing\ncrowds, \u201cIt is an evil and adulterous generation that wants a sign\u201d (Luke\n11:29), and then says the only sign he will give is the sign of Jonah. As a\nJew, Jesus knew well the graphic story of Jonah the prophet who ran from God and\nwas used by God almost in spite of himself. Jonah was swallowed by a whale and\ntaken where he would rather not go. This was Jesus\u2019 metaphor for death and\nrebirth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Rather than look for impressive apparitions or miracles, Jesus said we must go inside the whale\u2019s belly for a while. Then and only then will we be spit out on a new shore and understand our call, our place, and our purpose. <\/strong>Paul wrote about \u201c<strong>reproducing the pattern\u201d of Jesus\u2019 death and thus understanding resurrection (Philippians 3:10\u201311). <\/strong><em>Unless we have gone down, we do not know what up is!<\/em> <strong>Unless we descend, we won\u2019t long for and make inner space for ascent.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the only pattern Jesus promises us, and we see it mirrored in other traditions as well. Native religions speak of winter and summer; mystical authors speak of darkness and light; Eastern religions speak of yin and yang or the Tao. <strong>Christians call it the paschal mystery; all point to the same necessity of both descent and ascent, usually in that order.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The paschal mystery is <em>the <\/em>pattern of transformation, and it indeed is a mystery\u2014that is, i<strong>t is not logical or rational at all. We are transformed through death and rising, probably many times in our lifetime. <\/strong>For some cosmic reason, there seems to be no better crucible of growth and transformation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We seldom go freely into the belly of the beast. Unless we face a major disaster such as the death of a friend, child, or spouse or the loss of a marriage or career, we usually will not go there<\/strong>. As a culture, we have to be taught the language of descent <strong>because we are by training capitalists and accumulators.<\/strong> <strong>Mature religion shows us how to enter willingly and trustingly into difficult periods of life. These hard passages are good teachers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We would prefer clear and easy answers, but questions offer the greatest potential for opening us to transformation. We try to change events in order to avoid changing ourselves.<\/strong> <strong>We must learn to stay with the pain of life, without answers, without conclusions, and some days without meaning.<\/strong> That is the perilous hidden path of contemplative prayer. Grace leads us to the state of emptiness\u2014to a momentary sense of meaninglessness\u2014in which we ask, \u201cWhat is it all for?\u201d The spaciousness within the question allows Love to fill and enliven us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I continually call you to closeness with Me. I can read the emptiness of your thoughts when you wander from Me. Find fulfillment in Me as you surrender and release all your deficiencies onto Me. This is how to trust Me in the moments of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 131:2  <br>But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 21:6  <br>For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 37:7  <br>Be still before the Lord. and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeremiah 17:7  <br>Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord \u2014 That lives in continual obedience to him, and relies entirely upon him for every <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Father Richard describes the pattern of transformation Jesus offers through \u201cthe sign of Jonah,\u201d which is the mystery of death and resurrection: Jesus\u2019 primary metaphor for the mystery of transformation is the sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:39, 16:4; Luke 11:29). Jesus tells the growing crowds, \u201cIt is an evil and adulterous generation that wants a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21578,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21576\/revisions\/21578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}