I was reading to Damien about Yom Kippur, and there was a mention that it was common to read the book of Jonah at this time. So, I took a moment to read the book (it is very short) and asked myself a question: how is the story of Jonah alive in my own life?
An odd question for a story about a man who runs from God and gets swallowed by a fish.
However, I am certainly familiar with the experience of being called to do something, feeling fear in response, and running/hiding from that calling for as long as possible. This is Steven Pressfield’s Resistance at work. And, like Jonah, whenever I ignore the call I encounter calamity. A storm appears in my life. Even worse, those around me tend to suffer along with me, like Jonah’s compatriots on the boat. But this storm is my own creation, just as it was Jonah’s – I am hiding from “the call”, from “the voice”, from “the will of God”. The burden of not doing something I know I should be doing is difficult to bear. And hiding for too long leads to destruction and ruin.
Like Jonah, I do not always react favorably when something doesn’t play out in the way I expected. I also give in to anger. I let it consume me and cloud my reason. I, too, have been known in my anger to echo the words that Jonah spoke: “let me die!” God’s question in response to Jonah is one that I would do well to repeat in my own life: “Do you do well to be angry?” Of course, God, Jonah, and I all know that question is rhetorical.
Where Jonah serves as a model for us all is his reaction to the situation he is in. When the storm threatens the ship, he willingly goes overboard to ease the burden on his compatriots. After three days and nights in the belly of a fish, he does not curse God. Instead, he offers his thanks, and he finally picks up the mantle that has been thrust upon him. He repents, and then he is delivered (as the Assyrians are too).
He might pout, he might be angry at the outcome being different than what he expected, but that shows his humanity. Surely, Jonah will atone for his anger and once again reach the state of “at-one-ment” that is the goal of Yom Kippur.