Monday 21 July 2025
St Lawrence of Brindisi
Exodus 14:5-18. Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory – Exodus 15:1-6. Matthew 12:38-42.
The only sign that will be given is the sign of Jonah the prophet
Kayakers were swallowed by whales this February in Australia and Chile, while a scuba diver was swallowed off Cape Cod in 2021. Each time, the whale promptly spat out the intruder. Jonah’s whale seemed more tolerant.
The people of Nineveh repented when Jonah spoke to them, but Jewish leaders remained sceptical of Jesus. It raises the point, to whom do we listen?
Populist leaders are catching the attention of voters worldwide. They prey on people’s fears of the outsider, the immigrant, the asylum-seeker. They catch the attention of those who feel hard done by and left behind. Empathy for those who have fled extreme poverty, violence and persecution is lost. Gustave Gilbert, interviewer of the worst Nazi criminals at the Nuremberg trials, said they showed a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Quoted recently by Julia Baird, he suggested that evil is the absence of empathy.
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