Sermons: by Contemporary Fathers and Servants, on Jonah’s Fast
A Message from Nineveh (By Abba Kyrillos, Bishop of Millan)
A Message from the City of Nineveh: –
It is Nineveh, the great city…
Come, let me tell you about myself… my land… and my people: –
Come: for I will tell you how I had been, and to what I converted; come… that you may turn to be as one of my people; adorned as they are… As they are, you also may be honored… Come near me… to know how I was barren, naked, and in my own blood, the blood of sin, had been trodden…
My people and I had not only tried sin; but of it we had even drunk, and in it we had been sinking. Eyes we have had, but had not seen! Ears we have had, but had not heard…
Only one voice, the voice of sin had been that which I had heard and liked to hear.
The taste of uncleanness had been that which I had tasted and liked to taste. After an evil thought I had been running. To iniquity my people and I had been in bondage. In number, ten thousand times twelve had my children been; thus they had been; unknowing their right hands from the left! To the Lord all countries around me – even all around, had been offering incense from the rising of the sun to its setting. But out of my heart and of my people the detested smell of wickedness had come forth; that which is unworthy to be smelled by the Lord!
I am Nineveh city. Let me call you by name, and say, “O come, my son”; O how precious this word is, and of a great value for me! Many times I had heard it; but disobeyed… It is but the key to strongholds… Ignorantly I had rejected to hold or even to feel it… I had neither heard nor loved to hear that voice calling, “Come, My son”; or “return, My son.” Flee for your life; let your neck be loose from the bond; or, get up from the slumber of sleep.
The sin that my people and I had drunk had shut our hearing… blinded our eyes… robbed us of our will… destroyed our strength… corrupted the goodness of our nature… led us to the way of perdition and hades.
My people and I had turned to be blind… and who might have been able to lead a blind like himself!
On the waysides we had been sitting as dead in tombs… in the blood of our sins we had been trodden. Thus we had been, until we heard that the anger of our Master, the Lord, has come upon us with the scepter of His kingdom.
He who had been sitting on the throne in my city awoke from his slumber… Just as the sound mind works in dealing with matters… so did the heart of the ruler… The voices that had not been heard before, saying, “Come… be converted… repent… arise… return… wake up” –turned means of deliverance. Everyone wanted to hold onto them for being saved…
My son, I am unable to describe how I turned to be, together with my people, the sheep of my land, and the plants of my fields, in those days…
The great king… left off his throne… sat in sackcloth… bowed his head… and went on weeping…
Not one pap of any mother had run with milk nor had compassion on the crying babes! My young women and young men… all the men and women of my city… and all its elders… all of them fasted… prayed… cried… with a true heart they wailed…
Nay, my son; you cannot imagine how were the tears that my people shed nor their cries nor their weeping. I had seen them in their sin… and in their penitence I saw them…
For the first time, and with my own eye I did see the tears of my people being burst, from the eldest to the youngest… Their tears washed their hearts… I did see them so weeping… and saw their tears washing the filth of my land… I watched them turning the soil and earth of their depths once again… I saw them sowing the seeds of regret inside their hearts… I saw them waiting for the Lord; that He would have compassion on them, and with the sun of His righteousness shine on the depths of their depths…
I myself saw the seeds of regret: how they grew, and how they budded and brought forth the fruits of repentance…
With my people I had lived the time when they fasted and prayed to God… I witnessed the mercy of God coming upon them… how He lifted His wrath away from them… and forgave their sins… I am Nineveh city… I awoke from my slumber… I arose from my downfall… from myself I did shake off the dust… I sat on my throne…
I had been trodden down in the blood of my own sin… But today I became greatly honored with my creator and deliverer…
God’s hand, outstretched to everyone… to it I did uphold; so it took me up from the death of hades… It is the hand that bound me to all remedies leading to life… Wholeheartedly I did turn to God… and the Lord turned to me and revived my soul.
My son: I had tasted evil… and repented of all that had been made by me… I regretted to have turned to God so late… I hope that you would not neglect the word, “Turn back to Me,”… or “Come.”
Respond quickly; because it is the remedy and healing for your soul…
Return to God; that you may gain your soul which is precious… For thus has the Lord Christ said: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”…
My son… ask yourself where you are now; and who God is… He who wants you to turn to Him. Is not God the Father of light? The Prince of life? The giver of knowledge, and founder of grace? The Philanthropist to your soul… who gives you all things that angels desire to see…
Is not God who took you up from the deepness to the light… who gave you life out of death… who granted you freedom from bondage?…
All these teachings are given you through the church that Christ has established and let for you…
My son, return to God, and your soul shall live…
Nineveh, the Great City