Forgiving Life

I found today’s first USCCB reading from Jonah very insightful.  Jonah is pissed because God did not punish the bad people of Ninevah.  He is bitter and angry about these people not being punished while he himself is suffering. Jonah thinks life is so unfair that he wants to die.  Then God sends a large gourd to provide shade and shelter for Jonah, which is a relief to him until the gourd shrivels up and dies.  Then Jonah is angry again about the unfairness of life.  God reminds Jonah, that he did nothing to deserve the gourd or the shelter and shade it provided, but Jonah is still bitter that the blessing God sent his way did not last forever.

This story reminds me how often I feel bitter at the unfairness of life.  Why does evil so often go unpunished while innocent people suffer and die?  And how often do I take blessings and advantages as my due in life when so many of those blessings are things I did not work for or deserve, but were just handed to me for free?

At the end of the reading, God says to Jonah,

"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?"

These words made me realize that many of the people I am angry with don’t make good choices because of ignorance.  This does not mean they are stupid or wicked, it just means that they don’t have the same knowledge or the life experiences that I have had. They were not raised by my parents in my community and they were not granted the many advantages in life that I have been granted.  Why should people who cannot “distinguish" their right hand from their left” be punished when no one has taught them which hand is which? And what about all the innocent cattle living among these unfortunate people?  What about their children and their dogs, their elderly and infirm, their mentally ill? 

In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray, and he tells them to use these words:

Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come, your will be done. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, do not subject us to the final test."

So maybe, at least for today, I will try to let go of my bitterness about the unfairness of life. I will be thankful for the blessings that came my way in life, even those that have been taken away.  And I will forgive those whose ignorance has caused them to harm others as I ask forgiveness for those I have harmed through my own ignorance.

For today at least, I will trust in the Universal Consciousness that I call God, where all people are known and all people forgiven.