Day 1 (Monday)
Jonah 1:1-17; 2:1-10 (Jonah Tries to Run Away from God, Prays from the Belly of the Fish)
Last time, we read from the prophecy of Jeremiah, as the prophet speaks of the restoration of the people of God after the time of exile and judgment, and rather clearly prophecies the Lord’s coming and the consolation of the New Covenant. This time, we will see one of the prophets who spoke to Israel before the northern kingdom was led away into captivity by the Assyrian Empire, both because he gives us a glimpse of the reality experienced by the northern kingdom toward the end of its existence, and more particularly because he serves as a sign and foreshadowing in himself of the Lord’s resurrection. We are speaking, of course, of the prophecy of Jonah.
Jonah Tries to Run Away from God
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. 6 The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”
7 The sailors said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 “I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them.
14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17 But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
A Psalm of Thanksgiving
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called to the Lord out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 You cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
how shall I look again
upon your holy temple?’
5 The waters closed in over me;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped around my head
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the Pit,
O Lord my God.7 As my life was ebbing away,
I remembered the Lord;
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8 Those who worship vain idols
forsake their true loyalty.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”
10 Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should note that the understanding of the time was that the depths of the sea were strongly associated with the grave, with Sheol, the place of the dead, and thus the clear understanding of anyone reading this is that Jonah is not just crying out from inside a sea-beast’s belly, but actually crying out to the Lord from the depths of Hades. His prayer, then, becomes a prototypical image of the prayer of the righteous in the grave, waiting for the salvation of the Lord. And in being spewed out back onto dry land, we see a foreshadowing of the Resurrection itself. Next time, however, we will see Jonah actually go about his prophetic work, albeit with an ill will toward the people to whom he is preaching.)
2) What do we learn about God in this reading?
3) What do we learn about human beings in this reading?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 2 (Wednesday)
St. Cyril of Jerusalem – Catechetical Homily 14:15-18
St. Cyril of Jerusalem was the Nicene (and therefore Orthodox) bishop of Jerusalem from 350 – 386 AD. His time in oversight of that vital Church was one of great upheaval and tension, and he experienced at least three periods of exile from his see, the last for 11 years, during the reign of the Arian emperor Valens. At some point in his episcopate in Jerusalem, probably early on, he delivered a series of catechetical lectures to the catechumens who were preparing for baptism during the Lenten period. These sermons were delivered in the Church of the Resurrection, established on the sites of the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection by Constantine. The excerpts we will read today and next week are from Homily 14, on the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord. We read these in connection with our Day 1 readings, as St. Cyril is reflecting on the Resurrection in light of the story of Jonah.
On the Resurrection, Ascension, and Sitting at the Right Hand
Chapter 15
The Sacred Scriptures do not convince the unheeding Jews, who disregard all that is written, and impugn the Resurrection of Jesus; it is best to meet them thus: Why do you assert that Eliseus and Elia raised the dead, but deny the Resurrection of our Savior? Is it because we have no living witnesses of what we assert? Well, produce witnesses of those earlier events. But that was written about? So is this. Why do you accept one and reject the other?
Hebrews wrote the earlier history; the Apostles also were all Hebrews. Why, therefore, do you disbelieve Jews? Matthew, who wrote the Gospel, wrote it in the Hebrew tongue; and Paul the preacher was a Hebrew of the Hebrews; and the twelve Apostles were of Hebrew stock; besides, fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem in succession were appointed from the Hebrews. Why do you accept your own accounts but reject ours, though these too were written by Hebrews among you?
Chapter 16
But it is impossible, someone will say, for the dead to rise. Eliseus twice raised the dead, both when he was alive, and after his death. We believe that when a dead man had been cast upon the corpse of Eliseus he rose again on contact; but Christ has not risen from the dead? When the dead man touched Eliseus he rose again, though Eliseus who raised him remained dead as before; but in this case the Dead of whom we treat rose, and many dead who did not even touch Him rose.
For “many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose; and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection, they came into the holy city” (manifestly the city we are in), “and appeared to many.” Eliseus indeed raised a dead man, but he did not conquer the world; Elia raised the dead, but demons are not driven out in the name of Elia. We do not speak ill of these prophets, but we praise their Master more. We do not belittle their marvels to magnify our own, for their miracles are ours also; but from their deeds we win credit for our own.
Chapter 17
They further object: A dead man recently deceased was raised by the living; but show us that it is possible for a man dead and buried for three days to rise again. The testimony we seek is supplied by the Lord Jesus Himself in the Gospels, when He says: “For even as Jona was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Now when we study the story of Jona the force of the resemblance becomes striking. Jesus was sent to preach repentance; so was Jona. Though Jona fled, not knowing what was to come, Jesus came willingly, to grant repentance for salvation. Jona slumbered in the ship and was fast asleep amid the stormy sea; while Jesus by God’s will was sleeping, the sea was stirred up, for the purpose of manifesting thereafter the power of Him who slept. They said to Jona: “What are you doing asleep? Rise up, call upon your God! that God may save us”; but the Apostles say: “Lord, save us!”80 In the first instance they said: Call upon your God, and in the second, Save us.
In the first Jona said to them: “Pick me up and throw me into the sea, that it may quiet down for you”; in the other Christ Himself “rebuked the wind and the sea, and there came a great calm.”82 Jona was cast into the belly of a great fish, but Christ of His own will descended to the abode of the invisible fish of death. He went down of His own will to make death disgorge those it had swallowed up, according to the Scripture: “I shall deliver them from the power of the nether world, and I shall redeem them from death.”
Chapter 18
Here let us pose the question: Is it more difficult for a man dead and buried to rise again from the earth, or for a man in the belly of a fish, where he has come into contact with the extreme heat of a living creature, to suffer no corruption? Everyone knows that the heat of the belly is so intense that even bones that have been swallowed are decomposed. How was it possible for Jona to be three days and three nights in the belly of the fish without suffering corruption? How could Jona live for three days without breathing our air, since according to man’s nature we cannot live without breathing it? The Jews answer: “The power of God went down with Jona when he was tossed about in the depths.”
But if the Lord granted His servant life by sending His power with him, can he not grant it to Himself? If one is credible, the other is credible; if one is incredible, the other also is incredible; to me both are equally credible. I believe also that Christ rose from the dead. I have many testimonies of this, from the Sacred Scriptures, and from the power of the risen Christ working to this day. He descended alone into the nether world, but ascended therefrom with a numerous company; for He went down to death, “and many of the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose” by His power.
Leo McCauley, “Foreword to Catecheses 13–18,” in The Works of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, ed. Bernard M. Peebles, trans. Leo P. McCauley and Anthony A. Stephenson, vol. 64, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1970), 41–46.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out that this entire passage is written to counter supposed refutations of the Resurrection of our Lord that were current in his time; he was speaking to catechumens, who would certainly have heard objections to and criticisms of the Church’s teachings in the course of their time as catechumens, and still more as the season of celebrating the Lord’s Resurrection approached. Thus he gives this argument, which provides us with a chance to see how this Father of the Church reflected on the Old Testament, both the stories of Elisha/Eliseus and the story of Jonah. Most importantly, we see him following the Lord Himself as He interprets the story of Jonah as being a prophecy and sign of His own death and resurrection.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 3 (Friday)
Acts 17:16-34 (Paul in Athens)
Last week we saw Paul leave Thessalonica and Beroea, followed by those from the synagogue in Thessalonica who had opposed him out of jealousy. He therefore left his companions, Silas and Timothy and (presumably) Luke in Beroea, while he went on to Athens. Here in the city we will see him preach one of his more famous, although not necessarily his most successful sermons.
Paul in Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.”
(This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) 19 So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.
22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’
29 Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 At that point Paul left them. 34 But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Reading 32 – 506 words
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out that this is apparently the first time that St. Paul overtly preaches in public to a crowd of non-Jews. He had, of course, preached the Gospel to Gentiles who were listening in the synagogue, and had preached to the jailor in Philippi. But here, he stands up in the synagogue and disputes with the Athenian philosophers, and they give him room to explain in public what he is preaching. He begins by saying that he is simply preaching to them a god who they had once known, and perhaps have intuited the existence of, and so far they are somewhat intrigued. But when he speaks of the resurrection of the dead, then that is a bridge too far for many (but not all) of those who hear him. It is perhaps because of this and other encounters that St. Paul elsewhere speaks of the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord as foolishness to the Greeks (1 Corinthians 1:23). The other point worth noting is that, in verse 28, he quotes two pagan poets, both of whom are speaking about a god, but NOT the one true God. This shows us both that St. Paul is at least somewhat educated in Greek literature, and not only in the Torah, but also that he is willing to make use of that literature to preach the Gospel, to claim the beauty and wisdom of the heathen Greeks in service of the one true God of Israel, our Lord Jesus Christ. This coopting of Greek wisdom sets the stage for the next several centuries of the life of the Church, as the entire Greek mind and language are baptized and consecrated to the truth of the Gospel in the writings of the Fathers, the accounts of the martyrs, and the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?