But God said to Jonah, "Have you reason to be angry over the plant?" "I have reason to be angry," Jonah answered, "angry enough to die." Then the LORD said, "You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?" (Jon 4:1-11)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101123.cfm
God’s mercy and compassion surpasses that of Jonah and extends even to the pagan city of Nineveh. This is precisely the message that Saint John XXIII (1881-1093) taught the church when he convoked the Second Vatican Council. Mercy and compassion is the same message of Pope Francis and the Synod that is meeting in Rome.
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Saint John XXIII, pope, October 11
