Thursday, April 15, 2004
Christ is Risen!
Thursday of Bright Week
4th of the Paschal Vigil: Jonah 2 Apostle: Acts 2:38-43 Gospel: St. John 3:1-15
Jonah 2:1-11 LXX, especially vs. 10: "But I will sacrifice to Thee with the voice of praise and
thanksgiving...." The implications at the end of the first chapter of Jonah leave the reader perplexed: how should the
Lord's commandment to the great whale - to swallow up the Prophet - be understood? Was Jonah being devoured or was
he being delivered when he was taken up into the great fish? All this uncertainty is made abundantly clear in the second
chapter: the great fish serves the Lord by delivering Jonah from death.
The principal section of the second chapter is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving to God, "the Lord of...salvation" (vs. 10).
This theme of gratitude for deliverance is introduced with the opening words of the psalm (vs. 3), which follows the brief
opening narrative (vss. 1-2). Then Jonah declares the hopeless plight in which he found himself at being cast into the sea
(vss. 4-7a). Next follows his cry for help (vss. 7b-8a), which also includes his description of God's deliverance (vss. 7b-8).
Jonah concludes his hymn of praise with a petition for a new life, a rejection of the false ways that almost resulted in his
destruction, and a vow to continue his life in praise and thanksgiving thereafter (vss. 9-10).
While the psalm illumines the narrative and greatly enriches the reader's appreciation for the message of the entire Book of
Jonah, it is also valuable to look at it apart from the story line itself. When this is done, one sees that the psalm is related
to, but not dependent upon, the narrative. Rather, the psalm is perceived as a canticle of praise that could just as well be on
the lips of anyone who had brushed against destruction and experienced deliverance at the hand of the Lord.
Compare the way in which Jonah speaks of God in the first chapter and the manner in which he addresses God in the
psalm: "I am a servant of the Lord" (Jon. 1:9) versus "the Lord my God" (Jon. 2:3); or, "the Lord God of Heaven" (Jon.
1:9) versus "all that I have vowed I will pay to Thee, the Lord of my salvation" (Jon. 2:10). All detachment from God is
removed, and the Prophet speaks to the Lord in a warm, personal style of prayer.
As we saw in the first chapter, the real protagonist of the entire Book of Jonah is the Lord. He directs His saving message
to us through the type of His reluctant Prophet Jonah. We are invited to take the words of Jonah's praise upon our own
lips, to make it our Paschal hymn. Read as an entire work during the Great Vigil of Pascha, the Book of Jonah directly
connects us to the three days which the Lord Jesus lay in the tomb (Jon. 2:1), revealing why this work so well prepares the
Faithful for the stunning deliverance of the Lord's Holy Resurrection.
"Verily, O Christ, into the deepest abyss of earth Thou didst descend, and didst break the unyielding everlasting bars which
held men prisoner; and on the third day Thou didst rise from the tomb as Jonah from the whale." Do you hear the resonant
harmonics between this sticheron from the Sixth Ode of the Paschal Canon and the Prophet's words: "I went down into the
earth, whose bars are the everlasting barriers" (vs. 7)?
Beloved of the Lord, let us who are risen with Christ cry with Jonah to our Savior, "may my prayer come to Thee into Thy
holy temple" (vs. 8). Let us vow never to "observe vanities and lies [and forsake our] own mercy" (vs. 9). Let all
reluctance in us be swept away "with the voice of praise and thanksgiving" (vs. 10). We are, let us never forget, a People
of Eucharist, a holy Priesthood offering sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, men and women who have vowed to "the
Lord of [our] salvation" (vs. 10). "Come, glorify Christ risen from the dead."
O Christ Savior, we were but yesterday buried with Thee, and we shall rise with Thee in Thy Resurrection. Glorify us with
Thee in Thy Kingdom.
