Please read the passage before the homily:
This is the book of Jonah. Jonah is known as the unwilling prophet who tried to run away from being a prophet. His escapade includes being swallowed by a whale as he experienced that neither storm not whale could spare nim from what God called him to do.
He is said to have fallen asleep in the belly of the boat. Did he sleep out of exhaustion, or because he wanted to be left alone while he mulled what was happening, or perhaps he slept as a sign that he could ignore God’s designs.
Eventually the sailors and Jonah come to understand that the only way to safety was to throw Jonah into the depths of the sea. The transformation of Jonah takes him from dryland to the sea, from the mesa to the belly of the ship, from the belly of the ship back to the sea, then backp to the sea and into the belly of the whale. From there Jonah will end und up on dry land and re-sent to ninive.
Were Jonah a comedian, he would have nursed this story of his escape from God showing the utter futility of trying to escape from God. We would enjoy such a presentation because in many respects we are as clumsy at escaping God s Jonah was. Our story continues tomorrow and Wednesday.